Sunday 2 February 2014

Understanding Ecommerce



Commerce generally refers to any activity or group of activities that are undertaken to facilitate exchange of goods, products or services between two entities referred to as business and earn profit in the process. Broadly speaking, any type of business or segment larger or smaller that allows a firm or an individual to conduct business using an electronic media, specifically internet is called e-commerce. E-commerce or electronic commerce caters to all four kinds of market segments namely:

  • B2B - Business to Business                               
  • B2C - Business to Consumer 
  •  C2C - Consumer to Consumer
  • C2B - Consumer to Business
                        
 E commerce has now become an integral part of most of the business units. From footwear to apparels, herbal products to cosmetics, medicines to food and beverages everything is being purchased as well as sold online. In order to be a forerunner every business now needs a website that facilitates business over internet.
To facilitate the process of e commerce many IT companies have started the work of eCommerce website development. However, in order to get a good e commerce website designed and developed for your business, you should bear following points in your mind. 

Branding: Logo and motive of your business should be clearly visible on the website.

Information:  Be clear about the functioning of your business. Make sure you have latest info about the business you are trading in.

Access: Visitors on your website should easily be able to locate the important functions such as login, exit, and place order.

Graphics: The graphics on your website should be of high resolution so that user shall enjoy the browsing experience. And if possible put latest pictures related to your products and business.

Concise: Website should be crisp and focused on your core functions. In short, nothing distracting should be there.

Although, these points are important to get an effective and suitable website still, you should insist on getting your website designed and developed by professionals. There are many companies who have a long experience in developing, designing and maintaining all kinds of websites.

Click here to visit Sterco Digitex a leading IT company, designing, developing and maintaining all kinds of websites in India.

 Source: http://www.stercodigitex.com/blog

Monday 27 January 2014

Guide to Understanding Mobile Apps



What is a mobile app?

Mobile apps or mobileapplications are specially designed and coded programmes to trigger a specific action or to accommodate a specific purpose. Mobile games, small software packages, internet browsers are all examples of mobile apps. These apps can either be installed by users through various downloading platforms or can be provided by the mobile manufacturer. 

What are different types of mobile apps?

There are different types of mobile apps meant to accommodate variety of functions. Mobile apps based on their use and nature can be classified as offline and online apps. While offline apps are those that can be accessed without having a working mobile internet connection, online apps can be accessed only with a working mobile internet connection. Further, the mobile apps can also be categorized as professional and entertainment. Professional apps are developed with an aim to provide user the same environment as one might have on the computer to carry out official tasks.  Professional apps include office suite to read, edit and create spreadsheets, presentations etc. Entertainment apps on the other hand are those which are developed to cater to leisure activities such as games, internet, music, videos etc.

Can I download apps in my mobile?

The feasibility of a mobile app depends upon the platforms on which mobile is operating. Even the process of mobile application development considers the environment for which it is developed. For instance I-pad app development team will make apps that will run only on I-OS or mobiles running I-OS and mobile running on Android OS will run apps meant for android mobiles only. 

Can apps be developed on demand?

Yes, there are certain professionals that provide on demand application development services. Companies such as Sterco Digitex employ a specialized team for developing apps on demand.

Friday 20 September 2013

Online Marketing and Social Media



While handling online marketing, the key is user friendliness and interactivity which helps you get a grip over the requirements and demands of the people concerned and build a solid relationship. When a customer visits your website for the first time they treat you as an option among the swarm of portals and websites with tempting offers and promises. Every e-commerce website development company ensures that they develop an engaging website and in this tricky situation you can win over the trust of your visitors through interactive website features which ensure repetitive visits turning into actual sales. Any extent of appreciation of the interactive website features will not suffice those who are hard core believers of ROI, for them beforehand assessment of the possible benefits of high interactivity has to be explained. Therefore, let us take a quick glance at the promises:

For that glue like quality- Blogging, which is the highly used method of interactivity has emerged as the most effective method for hogging the attention particularly if you have kept the option of comments open for the visitors. The topic of the blog should be pertinent with your website so that it can be used as a tool for spreading information and importance about the concerned venture. In addition to this, feedback forms are excellent ways to develop familiarity with the opinions and response of visitor who in turn will admire your genuine attempt for improvisation.  RSS feeds, social bookmarking, surveys, polls, social media applications and discussion forums are other influential options that can augment the adhesiveness of your website inspiring faith of visitors and turning them into real costumers. Once you have got your website developed by an expert e-commerce website development company, the next step is to get social!

For changing fling into a long term relationship- The chances of any kind of business transaction in the initial visits are very miniscule reason is the absence of trust which is highly significant in the virtual business scenario.  If you want the visitors to turn into actual buyers they will have to be taken into confidence which in the times of Web 2.0 technology means incorporating interactive features  so that the conversation can be two way with the visitor developing a sense of involvement with your website. 

For branding that is hard to forget-With the growth of the concept of an e commerce website in India, competition is cutthroat. Once you start holding conversations with your visitors your brand is building an image in their mind. In this respect social media features and applications are great way of brand promotion. When customers get chance to interact with your business via popular social media networks like twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. it generally bags a place of trust and repute in their hearts. 

For desirable search engine rankings –By offering adequate response to the queries of visitors and by acting upon feedbacks you earn their respect and trust thereby ensuring for yourself word of mouth publicity which till date is best form of business promotion. As a result there will be an increase in the number of people who will be interested in linking their website to yours. Now, with appropriate number and quality of links and back links the popularity of your website will only rise in charts of search engine results.

Wednesday 18 September 2013

Social Media for Educational Institutions



The role of an educational institution is not confined to imparting education and granting a degree, rather, it largely contributes to the overall growth of the students as individuals. Therefore, it leads to formation of an everlasting bond between the student and institution, mentors and fellow students. 

In this era, it is impossible for people to stay personally connected to each other and Social Media Optimization bridges the gaps irrespective of the physical distance between people. This medium is being extensively used by businesses, celebrities, NGOs and establishments from all walks of life to stay connected with the masses. Despite all the criticism and doubts surrounding this medium, it has been seen igniting several causes to high levels. 

When it comes to educational institutions, social media campaigns are not just a necessity but are also convenient. The major chunk of the social hub is occupied by the youth and every educational institution is associated with a huge number of youngsters which may be current, prospective or former students. Therefore, finding people to initiate conversations would not be a challenge which in other cases is a tough stage.

Moreover, Social Media is not merely a platform for fun; it is fast progressing towards becoming a parameter for judging brands and establishments. Be it selection of a mobile phone or recruitment in a new organization, people tend to visit the Facebook page to figure out the nature of the entity. Similarly, students have also started to explore the Facebook pages of Universities, Colleges before taking admissions and the nature of content on your page is bound to affect the decision. Social Media marketing is also gaming prominence across the globe.

Why your institution should be on Social Media?
·         Reputation – Even if you are not on social media, as a topic, you still are and it is better to be available for responding that to let conversations build on their own.
·         The Buzz – Your social presence will act as an active community for updates, discussions, queries etc.
·         Leverage Users - All the students at your institution are using Social Media and posts related to their University, College, and Institute will help in generating conversations about your institution.
·         Observing Trends –The response you get on an event, any sort of achievement or even on a guest lecture video will reveal to you what are the interest areas of students. This analysis can be used for framing activities, workshops etc.
·         Word of Mouth – Any person belonging to the marketing realm would know the importance of word of mouth. Your active social presence will keep your institution’s name on top of minds which may result in recommendation and testimonials more often.
·         Information Broadcast – The medium can be used for making announcements without much effort.
·         Internal Boost –The institution can organize competitions between different departments as to who may get more social engagement ratio which will enhance performance and bring more enthusiasm.
·         Brand Building – The criteria for selection of an educational institution includes the quality of education, exposure provided, mentors and several mother factors. All these aspects can reflect through the institution’s social presence and it will be a more credible form of information in terms of transparency.
E.g. an album with pictures of Indian students abroad and foreign students in India which has several likes and comments from those students will leave a stronger impact that simply writing on your website that you offer “International Exchange Programs”.

This might bring you down to a question. “Being present on Social Media is fine but who will manage it?
 “. Well, to answer that, it is understandable that in case of a University or a College, the amount of information is going to be massive. The queries and responses would also be massive. The best way to deal with this is to hire a professional agency providing social media management services.

Monday 16 September 2013

ERP Simplify Business



Are you facing problems in managing internal processes at your organization? It is indeed a common problem faced by organizations of small as well as large magnitude. The best solution to this is to install an ERP(Enterprise Resource Planning) system, it is a cost effective solution for integrating functions across different departments of your organization.
Through ERP, various divisions of a company can interconnect and work can be executed through an automated work process. It enables the organization employees to enjoy easy availability of data pertaining to business processes and to find important information in the form of useful reports being generated from one platform.Managing business processes becomes easier, simplified and dynamic when you get an application developed by an ERP solutions provider.
ERP is an integrated web application that enables you to automate business processes and acts as a collaborative platform for the employees at your company. An ERP helps you combine the synergy of various departments such as Accounts, Marketing Team, Administration, Recruitment Division etc.
For e.g. with an ERP, you can create an order for each project you acquire. The files related to that project will appear on the ERP and you can allocate employees that are working on the same. The selected employees will be able to access the files added for that particular project. Similarly, based on their roles, the employees can update the status of the project on ERP which implies that any person can login with their credentials and know what is the status of a project they are associated with, without having to call or reach out to all individuals associated with that project.
ERP can be developed based on customer specification. With an ERP, you can manage:
·         Purchase Processes
·         Storage
·         Production
·         Quality Control
·         Dispatch
·         Sales Processes
·         Finances
·         Marketing Processes
·         HR Management
·         System Management
·         And several other processes
If you are looking for an ERP that can make your business operation run smoothly, the best way is to get it developed by any of the leading ERP solution providers. There are various companies that are into web application development and you can get an ERP developed based on your business specific requirements.