eCommerce

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10 Essential Features for Future eCommerce Apps

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In the rapidly evolving world of eCommerce, staying ahead of the curve is crucial. To ensure your eCommerce app remains competitive, it’s important to integrate features that not only enhance the user experience but also anticipate future trends. Here are 10 essential features that can set your eCommerce app apart and keep it relevant in the years to come. 

1. Livestream Shopping 

Livestream shopping has revolutionized the online shopping experience. Pioneered by platforms like Instagram and YouTube during the lockdowns, this feature allows brands to showcase their products in real-time to an engaged audience. Users can view products being demonstrated live and purchase directly from the stream, with links pinned to the screen for easy access. This creates an interactive and immersive shopping experience, driving immediate purchases and enhancing customer engagement. 

2. Augmented Reality (AR) Product Try-On 

Augmented Reality (AR) is transforming the way customers interact with products online. By incorporating AR features into your app, users can virtually try on clothing, accessories, or even visualize furniture in their home. This technology reduces the uncertainty of online shopping, allowing customers to see how products will look and fit in real life before making a purchase. This leads to higher customer satisfaction and lower return rates. 

3. Voice Search 

Voice search is becoming increasingly popular, with the rise of smart assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant. Integrating voice recognition technology into your eCommerce app allows users to search for products, navigate the app, and make purchases using voice commands. This feature not only enhances accessibility but also offers a hands-free, convenient shopping experience, catering to the growing number of users who prefer voice interaction. 

4. Integration with Smart Home Devices 

As smart home devices become more prevalent, integrating your eCommerce app with them can offer a seamless shopping experience. Allow users to reorder products, check delivery statuses, or even browse new items using voice commands through devices like Alexa or Google Home. This integration keeps your brand top-of-mind and makes it easier for customers to shop without having to pick up their phones. 

5. User-Generated Content 

Building trust in an eCommerce environment is essential, and user-generated content (UGC) is a powerful tool for achieving this. Allow customers to post reviews, ratings, and photos of products they’ve purchased. This not only provides social proof but also engages the community, encouraging more interaction with your brand. Additionally, UGC can be leveraged in marketing campaigns, showcasing real-life customer experiences to attract new buyers. 

6. Multi-Language Support 

In today’s global market, it’s important to cater to a diverse audience. Offering multi-language support in your app can help you reach a broader customer base. Ensure that your app is available in multiple languages and supports various currencies, making it easier for international customers to navigate and shop. This feature demonstrates inclusivity and enhances the user experience for non-English speaking customers. 

7. One-Click Checkout 

One-click checkout is a feature that streamlines the purchasing process, reducing cart abandonment rates. By allowing users to store their payment information securely, they can make purchases with a single click, eliminating the need for repeated data entry. This convenience is especially valuable for mobile shoppers, who often seek quick and easy transactions. 

8. Geolocation-Based Deals 

Leverage geolocation technology to offer users location-specific discounts, promotions, and offers from nearby physical stores. This feature not only personalizes the shopping experience but also drives foot traffic to brick-and-mortar locations. By combining online and offline shopping incentives, you can create a more integrated retail experience for your customers. 

9. Social Media Integration 

Social media plays a significant role in online shopping behavior. Integrating social media into your eCommerce app allows users to share their favorite products with their network, follow trends, and see what their friends are buying. This feature can increase brand visibility and drive organic traffic to your app, as users discover products through their social connections. 

10. Virtual Shopping Assistant 

A virtual shopping assistant can enhance the user experience by providing personalized product recommendations, answering questions, and guiding users through the shopping process. This AI-powered feature can analyze user behavior and preferences to suggest relevant products, making the shopping experience more efficient and enjoyable. By offering 24/7 assistance, you can also improve customer support and reduce the burden on human agents. 

Conclusion 

Incorporating these features into your eCommerce app can help you stay ahead in a competitive market. While these technologies and integrations are crucial, it’s equally important to focus on the basics: usability, security, and performance. A seamless and secure shopping experience is foundational to customer satisfaction and retention. 

As you plan, consider how these features align with your brand’s goals and audience preferences. By staying innovative and customer-focused, your eCommerce app can thrive in the ever-changing digital landscape. 

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Solving Integration challenges in Omni channel ecommerce.

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Post pandemic the shopping focus shifted majorly to the digital market. The commerce businesses have excessively adapted an omnichannel approach due to its contactless shopping and user-friendly experience. 

The need for scaling up to fulfill this demand for customers, omnichannel eCommerce, a commerce strategy focused on leveraging and integrating multiple online and offline channels, has become essential for businesses looking to ensure growth and stay competitive. An omnichannel approach is designed to connect every available touchpoint to give shoppers a seamless end-to-end purchasing experience. 

Having an omni channel deals with its own set of challenges as the stakes are very high. One needs to have a well-designed strategy. This means not only ensuring sales channels and customer communication channels are interconnected, but also that all the systems and back-end logistics are synced and coordinated as well. 

Maintaining the correct flow between logistics, updates and cost is a tedious operation for any business. However here is how you can manage some challenges by integrating to achieve seamless experience: 

While integrating you need to get few things correct: 

  1. Logistics: 
  • If you have an application, a website and a store make sure there is consistent inventory across channels. This builds transparency and increases the relationship between the brand and consumer. 
  • Companies need to maintain accurate volume counts for products that are available both in-store and online. Products displayed online cannibalize online eCommerce transactions and overarching sales. 
  • To tackle inventory and shipping hurdles, integrate an inventory management system with your ecommerce solution for smooth and rapid data processing.  
  1. Lack of technology: 
  • Companies often find they’re missing the right pieces to make it work or that their current tech stack is not modern enough to support the new, complex omnichannel requirements. The right partners can make or break your business and therefore you need to ensure you’re working with those who fit your needs.  
  • Often the existing commerce platform won’t be able to support their new needs or grow and scale with an omnichannel strategy. Many are forced to look at reforming their platform through their eCommerce solution or bringing on additional support. 
  1. Headless ecommerce architecture: 
  • A true headless solution will be built as a network of eCommerce APIs that can be composed into different services and features. 
  • Headless architecture enables companies to build custom digital commerce experiences that are unique to their business and catered to their customers, while also giving them freedom to adjust, update, and maintain back-end business processes. 
  1. Data privacy and Security: 
  • Making transition smooth and ensuring the company isn’t liable for any data handling mishaps, one will need to identify and set up new levels of access and restrictions for various employees, ensure that data is encrypted, software is the latest and updates are regularly scheduled. 
  • Companies will also need to ensure that general industry guidelines for security and data privacy, such as GDPR and CASL, are followed. 
  1. Cost: 
  • Creating an omnichannel experience can be expensive.  
  • New tools need to be adopted; new processes will need to be introduced. Depending on the scale and complexity of the project, the costs and timeline will vary. 

The expansion of tech doesn’t only apply to consumer-used technology. As customer demands shift and new ones arise, as will the specialized tools or solutions used to address them. New vendors will break into the landscape with a wide array of uses. 
It will become more important to keep an eye on not only customer demands, but also your own tech stack. You need to ensure your internal infrastructure will continue to support your changing business requirements. 

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Updates that are a big NO for an ecommerce website! 

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The e-commerce market is at brim with its technologies and updates. Having an ecommerce website demands to be well-versed with the feedback for the technology being used. It is crucial to understand what works and what doesn’t for a particular target audience and hence here is a list of things to take care before you make any huge updates to the website: 

Here are some types of updates that might be considered a big “no” for ecommerce websites without careful consideration and testing: 

  1. SEO Structure Changes: Altering the website’s URL structure, meta tags, or other SEO-related elements without proper redirects can negatively impact search engine rankings and can affect organic traffic. 
  1. Abrupt Changes to Checkout Process: Avoid making abrupt changes to the checkout workflow without proper testing and user feedback. Sudden modifications can lead to cart abandonment and a decline in conversion rates. 
  1. Security Updates Without Testing: While security updates are crucial, applying them without proper testing can result in unforeseen issues. Test security updates in a staging environment to ensure they do not disrupt the website’s functionality. 
  1. Unverified Plugin or Extension Updates: Unverified updates may introduce bugs, security vulnerabilities, or conflicts with other components, verify that the updates are compatible with your ecommerce platform. 
  1. Theme Overhauls: Changing the website theme or design can impact the user interface and user experience. If not done carefully, it might confuse users and affect navigation. 

Removing features that customers rely on can be frustrating and lead them to abandon their carts or shop elsewhere. Before removing any features, be sure to understand why they are being removed and what impact this will have on customers. Additionally, consider notifying users in advance of any planned downtime or changes to manage expectations and minimize potential disruptions. 

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Case Study for Ogaan:

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Challenges:

  • Scaling Issues: OGAAN faced challenges in handling increased website traffic, particularly during sales periods.

  • Backend System Upgrade: The existing backend system needed a comprehensive upgrade to enhance efficiency and support the evolving needs of the fashion retailer.

  • Website Revamp: A complete overhaul of the website was required to align with contemporary design standards and provide a seamless shopping experience.

Project Scope:
To improve the website design and fix scaling issues with maintaining of the website for better traffic maintenance. Separating both the catalogues for the buyers and having the common upgraded backend system for efficiency and performance.
  • Enhance website scalability to handle increased traffic during peak periods.
  • Upgrade backend system for improved efficiency and performance.
  • Redesign website to align with contemporary design trends and improve user experience.
  • Implement separate buyer catalogues (Ogaan and Kaari Market) for easier navigation.
  • Provide ongoing website support and maintenance.
Our Approach:
  • Traffic Scaling Solutions: :

    -Fermion conducted a thorough analysis of OGAAN’s website traffic patterns during peak sales periods.

    -Implemented scalable solutions to optimize website performance and handle increased user activity without compromising on speed and responsiveness

  • Backend System Upgrade:

    -Collaborated with OGAAN to understand specific backend system requirements and pain points.

    -Developed and implemented a new version of the backend system, incorporating the latest technologies to improve efficiency, reliability, and scalability..

  • Website Revamp:

    -Engaged in a comprehensive redesign of the website to align with contemporary design trends and enhance user experience.

    -Introduced new features and functionalities to provide customers with an intuitive and visually appealing platform for exploring and purchasing fashion and jewelry collections.

  • Continuous Support and Maintenance:

    -Fermion has been a dedicated technology partner for OGAAN since 2018, providing ongoing support, maintenance, and updates to ensure the website remains at the forefront of digital retail innovation.

Result:
  • Improved Scalability: Fermion’s solutions successfully addressed OGAAN’s scaling issues, allowing the website to handle increased traffic during sales periods without performance degradation.
  • Efficient Backend System: The upgraded backend system improved efficiency, reliability, and overall performance, supporting OGAAN’s operations seamlessly..
  • Modernized Website: OGAAN’s revamped website now boasts contemporary design elements, enhancing the overall user experience and aligning with the brand’s commitment to showcasing fashion excellence.
  • Accuracy Improvement: The sales showed an impressive result which increased by 5 times post our optimization.
Conclusion:
A website with different catalogues names as Ogaan and Kaari Market made it easy for their customers to navigate their shopping experience through separate features. Fermion’s continued collaboration with OGAAN demonstrates the long-term commitment to supporting the fashion brand’s digital presence, ensuring it remains a leader in the dynamic landscape of online retail.
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Case Study for IndiaCircus:

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Challenges:

  • Checkout Process Optimization: Improve the user experience and efficiency of the checkout process.

  • Infrastructure Enhancement: Address and overcome challenges related to the existing infrastructure.

  • Front-end UI/UX Revamp: Modernize and streamline the front-end user interface and experience.

Project Scope:
The team at Times needed a new architecture and improved performance for their existing website which was an exciting learning curve for the team at Fermion. The key objectives included were:
  • Performance Bottlenecks: The existing platform struggled with performance issues, hindering the seamless delivery of content to the audience. Slow page load times and poor user experience prompted the need for a comprehensive solution.
  • Traffic Surge during Breaking News: The nature of news consumption leads to unpredictable spikes in website traffic, especially during breaking news events. The challenge was to ensure that the platform could gracefully handle sudden bursts in user activity without compromising performance.
Our Approach:
  • Market Research:

    -We conducted market research to understand customer preferences and study the existing lagging performance..

  • Headless Front-End for Enhanced Speed:

    -To tackle the performance issues, Fermion Software Company adopted a headless front-end architecture..

  • Scalable, Auto-Scaling Architecture:

    -Recognizing the need for scalability during breaking news, Fermion implemented an auto-scaling architecture. This dynamic solution allowed the platform to efficiently scale resources based on demand, ensuring it could handle over 200,000 concurrent users seamlessly..

Result:
  • Optimized Performance: The adoption of a headless front-end architecture successfully addressed the performance challenges. Users experienced faster load times and an overall enhanced browsing experience, contributing to increased engagement and satisfaction.
  • Scalability: The implementation of a scalable, auto-scaling architecture proved instrumental during sudden traffic surges. Timesnownews.com demonstrated the ability to handle over 200,000 concurrent users on demand, maintaining stability and accessibility during critical breaking news moments.
  • Enhanced User Experience: The revamped platform not only met but exceeded the expectations of the content-savvy internet audience, establishing Times Now as a reliable and high-performance source for digital news consumption.
Conclusion:
Fermion’s strategic approach to addressing performance challenges and enabling scalability has successfully transformed Timesnownews.com into a resilient and high-performing digital platform. The collaboration has positioned Times Now as a leader in delivering timely and seamless news thus far.
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Are you ready for economic fluctuations this year? 

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The IT world thrives on deadlines and budgets, but the ground beneath can feel shaky when economic storms brew. Fluctuations, from recessions to inflation, can threaten project lifelines, leaving teams scrambling to keep afloat. Can we truly escape this economic rollercoaster? While complete avoidance is a mythical feat, strategic sailing can help us navigate turbulent waters. 

  1. Planning and Flexibility: 
  • Build buffer: Include a contingency buffer in your budget (10-20%) to account for unexpected costs due to economic shifts. 
  • Phased development: Break down projects into smaller phases with defined deliverables and budget allocations. This allows for adjustments if needed. 
  • Prioritize ruthlessly: Focus on delivering core functionalities within budget and deadline, even if it means scaling back on non-essential features. 
  1. Cost Optimization: 
  • Seek efficiency: Look for ways to streamline processes and optimize resource allocation. Automation and cloud-based solutions can help. 
  • Monitor and track: Regularly monitor expenses and identify areas for cost reduction. Use data analytics to make informed decisions. 
  1. Alternative Funding Models: 
  • Subscription-based services: Offer subscription-based pricing instead of upfront costs, providing stable revenue and predictability. 
  • Value-based pricing: Align your pricing with the delivered value, making it more resilient to economic fluctuations. 
  • Partnerships and grants: Explore partnerships or grants that can supplement your budget and reduce upfront costs. 
  1. Building Resilience: 
  • Diversify your portfolio: Having a variety of clients across different industries helps spread risk and minimizes dependence on a single sector. 
  • Focus on agility: Develop organizational agility to adapt quickly to changing circumstances and make swift decisions. 
  • Invest in talent: Upskill your team to ensure they have the skills needed to tackle challenges and navigate economic uncertainties. 
  1. Communication and Transparency: 
  • Maintain open communication: Communicate openly with stakeholders about potential economic impacts and the measures you’re taking to mitigate them. 
  • Manage expectations: Set realistic expectations with clients and team members regarding potential adjustments to deadlines or budgets. 

Remember, there’s no guaranteed formula for complete immunity to economic fluctuations. However, by adopting a proactive, flexible, and resilient approach, you can significantly reduce their impact on your project deadlines and IT budgets, ensuring your projects stay on track and within budget even in challenging economic times. 

The best relief can be provided by the partnership you chose to build with IT teams, which help you focus on your goals and are well equipped to take the right decisions!