OpenCart Archives - The A2 Posting https://www.a2hosting.com/blog The Official Blog for A2 Hosting Wed, 15 Sep 2021 13:08:07 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.3 9 Important E-Commerce Trends to Watch in 2021 https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/e-commerce-trends-2021/ Mon, 29 Mar 2021 13:30:47 +0000 https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/?p=10491 With online shopping at an all-time high, the world of e-commerce has never been more exciting and fast-paced. If you don’t keep up with the latest e-commerce trends, you risk …

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With online shopping at an all-time high, the world of e-commerce has never been more exciting and fast-paced. If you don’t keep up with the latest e-commerce trends, you risk getting left behind.

By embracing industry trends, you can drive more traffic to your site and convert visitors into paying customers. What’s more, staying in the know can help you maximize your revenue today while future-proofing your business for tomorrow.

In this article, we’ll help you keep your store at the cutting-edge throughout 2021 and beyond. We’ll introduce you to the importance of e-commerce trends, explore nine of the biggest ones currently, and discuss how you can implement them. Let’s get started!

An Introduction to E-Commerce Trends (And Why They’re Important)

Market trends are patterns of consumer behavior that can be found across all industries. As an online store owner, you likely depend on website traffic.

More people visiting your store means more potential customers and sales. Staying at the cutting edge of the latest e-commerce trends can help you generate more buzz around your offerings.

Once people arrive at your store, your next task is to convert them into customers. If your site reflects the latest e-commerce trends and consumer preferences, it can help you boost their experience, and in turn you can maximize your conversion rates and revenue.

It’s always been important for businesses to keep up with consumer trends. However, since the ongoing pandemic is having a massive impact on the world of e-commerce, it’s perhaps more vital now than ever.

A recent survey revealed that, throughout 2020, COVID-19 drove online shopping to an all-time high. By embracing industry trends, you can increase your chances of connecting with this huge potential audience of people looking to shop in a safe online environment.

There’s also evidence to suggest that new customers you acquire now are likely to stick with your business for the long haul. The aforementioned survey showed that nearly 9 out of 10 people worldwide plan to continue spending money with an online store they discovered during the lockdown.

The world of e-commerce is always changing and evolving. Staying on top of the latest topics and trends can prevent you from falling behind and becoming irrelevant.

9 Important E-Commerce Trends to Watch in 2021

To help you identify exactly where your e-commerce store should go next, it’s critical to monitor industry trends. To set you on the path to success, let’s take a look at nine e-commerce trends expected to shape the industry throughout 2021 and beyond.

1. There’s an Increasing Demand for Personalized Shopping Experiences

Today, the vast majority of stores have an online presence. With plenty of e-commerce sites to choose from, customers are in a strong position to demand a five-star experience. There’s evidence to suggest that, for many customers, personalization massively improves the purchasing process.

According to marketing specialists Epsilon, 80 percent of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer a tailored experience. By customizing the experience for each shopper, you can help drive conversions.

Also, over 36 percent of consumers say retailers need to do more to offer personalized experiences. That means this strategy can help you get the edge over your competitors.

Every purchase has a positive impact on your revenue. However, repeat customers are particularly valuable, as they deliver a high Return On Investment (ROI) and Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV).

Personalization can help you build rewarding long-term relationships by improving the quality of the customer experience. You can even use it to present yourself as a helpful service, rather than just another online store. For example, you might recommend new products based on a customer’s previous purchase history, or remind them when it’s time to reorder their favorite items.

If you’re going to provide this kind of helpful service, you’ll need to record information about the customer’s habits and behavior. You can achieve this by adding membership functionality to your site using a plugin such as Members:

The WordPress Members plugin.

Members ensures that all the customer’s actions are added to their user profile, ready for you to use to craft tailored experiences. You could even use this plugin to sell members-only products or offer exclusive pricing to your best customers. Also, memberships can create a sense of exclusivity, which is another powerful way to encourage long-term loyalty.

2. Smartphone Shoppers Are Continuing to Increase

The number of global smartphone users has passed three billion. With so many mobile devices out there, it’s essential to optimize your online store for this demographic.

In 2019, mobile devices accounted for 65 percent of all e-commerce traffic, and 53 percent of sales. Depending on your industry, this number may be even higher. For example, fashion retailers receive 67 percent of their sales from mobile devices.

The number of smartphone users is projected to grow by several hundred million in the next few years. Therefore, we predict that mobile optimization will be a massive trend throughout 2021 and in the years to come.

To ensure that your store provides a favorable experience for smartphone and tablet users, we recommend using a mobile-responsive WordPress theme:

The WordPress Theme Directory.

It’s also a smart idea to remove popups, as these are particularly obtrusive on the smaller screen of your typical mobile device. Similarly, consider reviewing each web page to look for opportunities to trim unnecessary content.

Remember that your typical smartphone or tablet screen can display far less content than a desktop computer. By streamlining your site, you can minimize how much mobile users need to scroll to access the information or features they need.

Chances are your e-commerce store features a lot of product images. Beautiful, high-resolution images are essential for driving conversions. However, they also impact your page loading times.

If your site takes too long to load or provides a poor experience, you can assume that consumers will be less likely to make a purchase. To meet consumer expectations and drive sales, it’s important to optimize your product images for mobile.

3. Omnichannel Selling Is Becoming Essential

Today’s consumer expects to purchase content in multiple ways, such as browsing your product catalog on both their desktop and mobile browsers. Some online stores even have a dedicated mobile app:

The Amazon mobile app banner.

 

As an e-commerce site, it’s crucial that you meet your customers wherever they are, and provide a seamless experience across all channels. A headless e-commerce architecture can help you deliver this kind of omnichannel experience. By opting for a headless setup, you’ll be able to create your content once, and then publish it on multiple platforms.

If you’ve built your site using the popular WooCommerce e-commerce platform, you’ll have access to the WooCommerce REST API. This API gives you the flexibility to use your data in other contexts, including Single Page Applications (SPAs) and mobile apps:

The WooCommerce REST API can help you implement e-commerce trends.

As an online retailer, you’ll likely want to promote your content on every conceivable channel. However, it’s important to be selective about your omnichannel experience. Building and maintaining a presence across a long list of platforms requires a significant amount of time and effort. As a busy website owner, this may not be practical.

Different channels also have different target audiences, and there’s no guarantee that these people will be your ideal customers. Focusing on a platform that isn’t widely used by your target audience will likely deliver a low ROI.

Ideally, you’ll zero in on the channel(s) that your audience spends the majority of their time. Here, it may help to deep-dive into your visitors and their behaviors using a platform such as Google Analytics.

4. Environmentally-Conscious Consumers Are Encouraging Brands to Go Green

In 2021, environmental issues are no longer reserved for eco-friendly brands. Many major online retailers have taken the pledge toward sustainability, including e-commerce giant Amazon:

Amazon's sustainability website.

Sustainability is a great cause, and every business should strive to become more eco-friendly. However, there’s no denying that ‘sustainability’ is also a huge buzzword, particularly among millennials.

According to a recent study, 61 percent of consumers said that they would switch to a brand that’s more environmentally friendly than their current favorite. This means that taking steps towards sustainability isn’t just the right thing to do – it can also help you get an edge over the competition.

Your customers may even be willing to pay more for eco-friendly products, especially the younger generation. The same study showed that 61 percent of millennials and 58 percent of Gen-Z agree that they’d pay a higher price tag for a ‘green’ product.

This suggests that, even if you have to increase your prices, your customers may be happy to foot the bill. Sustainability could be one of the few ways for you to increase your prices, while also improving the customer experience.

To set your e-commerce store on the green road, we recommend reviewing your current offerings. Consider whether your products are made through sustainable processes or with eco-friendly materials. Wherever possible, it’s a smart idea to replace items that aren’t with more sustainable alternatives.

Additionally, if you ship to your customers, you might look into ways to reduce the amount of packaging used. You could also replace non-recyclable materials, such as plastic, with recyclable alternatives, such as cardboard. To boost your green credentials, you may want to provide instructions on how to recycle the packaging, or even the product itself.

5. Social Media Continues to Drive Purchasing Decisions

For years, social media has been an integral marketing tool for online stores. However, in 2020, we saw a few initiatives that strengthened this link between social media and e-commerce, such as the partnership between Shopify and TikTok and the launch of Instagram Shops:

The Instagram Shops dashboard.

These projects reflect the increasing number of customers who make purchasing decisions directly from their social media feeds. To capitalize on this trend, you can look for opportunities to create shareable content related to your e-commerce offerings. For example, you might create unboxing videos of your products.

You could also generate social media buzz by encouraging your customers to create their own content. Consumers generally perceive User-Generated Content (UGC) as more trustworthy than traditional promotional and marketing content.

Therefore, you may want to provide an incentive to shoppers for creating valuable UGC. For example, home-ware brand MADE has an ongoing Instagram campaign where customers share photos of their favorite MADE products:

The MADE Instagram competition example of an e-commerce trend.

How you promote your store on social media also makes a difference. Although it’s difficult to prove, there’s a common belief that social media algorithms reward the adoption of new features.

Every time new functionality is introduced, you may want to put it to the test by incorporating it into your social media activities. Then you can measure the impact it has on your engagement, conversions, and other key metrics. Armed with this information, you can adjust your social media efforts accordingly.

Experimenting with the latest social media features can also help boost your profile. You may even earn a reputation as a business at the cutting edge of social media trends. This can increase your appeal, particularly among the tech-savvy younger generations.

6. Online Influencers Are Assuming a Content Creator Role

An online influencer is someone who has a significant digital following. They can promote your business or products to their existing audience, similar to a traditional celebrity endorsement.

The influencer marketing industry is expected to reach $9.7 billion in 2020, making it clear why these partnerships deserve a spot on the list of important e-commerce trends to consider. The right person can send a fresh wave of traffic to your online store, and even increase your sales.

Influencers can promote your brand, but they also fulfill a content creation role. With more social media platforms than ever before, busy website owners may struggle to create enough content to feed the machine. Instead of partnering with an agency, you could consider teaming up with someone who will create content based on your brand.

The key to a successful partnership is to find a fitting match. Ideally, there should be some crossover between their fan base and your target audience, as this will typically result in more conversions.

It also helps if there’s some connection between the influencer and the product(s) they’re promoting, so the content seems more authentic. Even though the work is strictly business, fans like to believe that their favorite creators are discerning about brands they promote. If the audience thinks the promoter is genuinely passionate about your product(s), it’s more likely to result in sales.

While it’s tempting to go after the biggest social media stars, sometimes it makes more sense to partner with a micro-influencer within your niche. They may have a smaller audience, but if their fan base represents your ideal customer, the collaboration could yield a high ROI.

7. More Online Stores Are Becoming Multilingual

Thanks to the internet, your store has the opportunity to reach audiences worldwide. With online shopping more prevalent than ever, we predict that more businesses will try to capitalize on this global increase by producing multi-language content.

According to estimates, 60 percent of all online content is in English, but 74 percent of internet users speak a language other than English. If you restrict yourself to a single language, you’re missing out on a huge audience – and a lot of potential sales. Plus, this is one of the e-commerce trends you can take advantage of to make your site more accessible.

Even if your customers are multilingual, most people appreciate a business that attempts to communicate in their first language. Research shows that 65 percent of consumers prefer to access content in their native tongues.

When it comes to translating your content, we recommend working with a native speaker wherever possible. They typically offer the highest quality results, and will have an innate understanding of the cultural etiquette surrounding the language. Rather than providing a word-for-word translation, a professional can use this insight to help you create interpreted content that is more engaging and persuasive.

After translating your e-commerce site, you’ll need to give visitors a way to switch between the supported languages. You can add a language picker to your online store using the Polylang plugin:

The Polylang WordPress plugin.

You can also use this plugin to optimize your site’s categories, tags, and custom taxonomies for the different languages your store supports. The tool can help your translated content appear in relevant search engine results, and drive more international customers to your online store.

8. Customer Support Is Getting an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Boost

Customer service is essential for driving sales. Studies indicate that a consumer will spend  140 percent more after having a positive experience.

Many factors contribute to the quality of your customer experience. However, how quickly you respond to inquiries is a huge one. Ideally, you’ll answer immediately, and at any time of the day or night. Of course, for many online store owners, this simply isn’t feasible.

Chatbots can be a powerful way to provide customers with instant access to support, regardless of the date, time, or number of other people currently seeking help. There’s also evidence to suggest that these AI tools are becoming increasingly popular, with over 67 percent of consumers using them for customer support in 2019.

Even if you have a 24/7 customer services department, chatbots can streamline your support process. For example, you might use one to automatically gather important information, such as the customer’s account number and contact details. This information will then be shared with your support staff.

In this way, chatbots can reduce the amount of time required to resolve a customer’s query. When it comes to routine questions, research indicates that they can reduce response times by up to 80 percent.

There are various chat tools that integrate with WordPress. If you’re using WooCommerce, the WoowBot plugin is a popular standalone chatbot that has full support for the e-commerce platform:

The WooWBot WordPress plugin can help you implement e-commerce trends.

Another well-known option is Chatbot by Collect.chat. This plugin is free to use, and lets you add a chat widget to your site without any technical knowledge.

9. There’s a Growing Need for Online Businesses to Invest in Dedicated Hosting

Behind most successful websites are reliable, high-performance hosting providers. The type of hosting you use influences all aspects of your site, particularly its speed and performance.

Business-critical websites, especially online stores, come with a unique set of challenges and demands. Not only are fast page loading times and quick checkout processes necessary to ensure a seamless UX, but any amount of downtime can be disastrous.

As more companies move operations online, it ushers in an increasing need to invest in dedicated hosting:

A2 Hosting dedicated hosting plans.

In a nutshell, dedicated hosting means you aren’t sharing your server resources with other websites. In turn, you have the benefit of improved security and overall better performance. You can feel confident that your store will remain online, even during unexpected traffic spikes, and as your site continues to grow throughout 2021 and beyond.

Conclusion

Over the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic forced many consumers to shop online and triggered an e-commerce revolution. Now it’s time to prepare your business for the next step.

To set your site up for success, it’s a good idea to provide a more personalized shopping experience. By offering membership features, you can encourage customer loyalty and increase your chances of securing repeat purchases. We also predict that consumers will continue to favor sustainable brands, and may even be willing to pay a premium for sustainable products in 2021.

Following the latest e-commerce trends is essential for driving traffic and conversions. This includes getting the foundations right, such as your web hosting. At A2 Hosting, we offer dedicated hosting plans that can help keep your e-commerce site up and running 24/7!

Image credit: Pexels.

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7 St. Patrick’s Day Marketing Strategies to Boost Your Ecommerce Sales https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/seven-st-patricks-day-marketing-strategies-to-boost-your-ecommerce-sales/ Wed, 10 Mar 2021 18:51:11 +0000 https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/?p=10580   Introduction We love the color green so St. Paddy’s Day is one of the best holidays in our book! This year we’re celebrating with  seven digital marketing tips and …

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Introduction

We love the color green so St. Paddy’s Day is one of the best holidays in our book! This year we’re celebrating with  seven digital marketing tips and tricks to help your business take advantage of this lucky time of year. 

 

    1. Be Authentic and Use the Right Tone and Voice
    2. Be Culturally Sensitive
    3. Add Festive Decorations and Go Green
    4. Help Your Customers Call On the Luck of the Irish
    5. Don’t Miss an Opportunity to Go Live!
    6. Send Out a Holiday Themed Email Campaign!
    7. Do Research on Other Successful Campaigns to Help Plan Your Own

 

1) Be Authentic and Use the Right Tone and Voice

 

As with any major holiday or promotion, it’s important to be authentic to your company’s brand when coming up with a digital marketing campaign. It’s all good fun to come up with holiday puns and green themed campaigns, but above all you must do your research and make sure your posts align with how you want to portray your company to the marketplace.

Know Your Brand’s Personality on Social and be Consistent

Do research on past posts and make sure your tone aligns with what you’ve published previously. It’s important to follow your brand guidelines and be consistent, even as you play with puns that fit the St. Patrick’s Day theme. Posting something that’s drastically different from previous content won’t help in building a strong brand

 

It’s also important to remember why people follow you. What are they looking for when they come to your site? For example, if you own a crafting store people are likely following you to see the latest trends in crafting materials or what cool things you’ve created with your craft supplies. Likewise if you own an outdoor clothing store, people may follow you to see your clothes in action or find awesome new hiking trails. It’s important you can deliver what your customer wants to see on your social platforms. This will make it easier to keep your followers engaged with your content and refer them back to your site. The perfect combination is:

2) Be Culturally Sensitive 

 

Be creative! Come up with new puns or ways to make old puns fit your brand. Remember to be historically and socially conscious before you post. Don’t be tone deaf and post offensive or charged content. Be relevant and timely while also socially conscious. A good publicity stunt can work wonders on brand identity and public image, but make sure to do it in the right way. Have your public relations team and any marketing members meet before posting and discuss implications of your campaign from all angles in order to uncover any miscommunication or issues that could arise later on. 

 

3) Add Festive Decorations and Go Green

 

It’s always important to follow online trends and be timely in your advertising, and one of the biggest trends during St. Patrick’s Day is the color green. Historically green was worn to represent the Emerald Isle and the people of Ireland, but today it has turned into a folkloric attempt to avoid the pinch of an errant leprechaun. St. Patrick’s Day marketing is a perfect time to use this color to entice your audience to purchase from your online store!

If you have merchandise that’s green or your brand uses this as one of their colors, this is a great time to highlight this. It’s also a great opportunity for online creativity. Add green banners to your website or pop in some green accent colors here and there.  Reap the rewards of your environmental efforts while joining in on the holiday spirit. Use this opportunity to advertise any “green initiatives” your company is participating in!

 

4) Help Your Customers Call On the Luck of the Irish

 

In addition to decorating your store, St. Patrick’s Day is a great time to run discounts and deals on your site! Use this opportunity to give a percentage off on all green items (color or environmentally sound) or create a custom sales item with your favorite St. Patrick’s day slogan or image. Create a sense of urgency and run your sale for a limited amount of time. Encourage User Generated Content (UGC) by creating drawings or picture-sharing promotions asking followers to participate if they’re “feeling lucky.” This is a great way to create talk about your brand and encourages followers to interact with your posts. 

 

5) Don’t Miss an Opportunity to Go Live!

 

You could use St. Patrick’s Day as an opportunity to do live video on your social accounts by sharing real time updates with your followers. Dress up and stream your live reactions as they send their selfies in or record as you contact the winners of your promotional contest. Create a funny behind the scenes video of your employees as they grant wishes or chase the rainbow. This is a great way to personalize your accounts and share the people behind your brand! 

 

6) Send Out a Holiday Themed Email Campaign

 

To increase touches, send out a holiday themed email campaign. You could stick a shamrock themed logo on your header and cross-promote any social media campaigns you have running. Increase your marketing reach by requiring email sign ups to enter social promotions you have planned. Then attach a secret promo code that can be used by people who subscribe! The possibilities are endless and it works well to coordinate your overall marketing strategies across all marketing channels and promotional materials.

 

7) Do Research on Other Successful Campaigns to Help Plan Your Own

 

We know all of this might sound like a lot, but sometimes it helps to look at successful campaigns when trying to come up with some ideas of your own. We’ve got three examples below that may help spark some ideas for your own festive campaigns. 

 

Guinness: Make St. Patrick’s Day the Friendliest Day of the Year

 

Their Friendliest Day of the year campaign was a huge success. By emphasizing coming together with friends and family, they were able to tie the theme of community to their product, eliciting warm feelings when followers thought of their brand. They included infographics with St. Patrick’s Day facts that could be shared worldwide, helping spread their brand awareness through increased follower interaction. They were timely, relevant, and socially aware as they ran their St. Patrick’s Day campaign. 

 

 

M&M’s: Ms. Green Campaign

 

M&M used their iconic candy personas to bring their brand to life. Ms. Green embarked on a spokes candy campaign around Ireland, stopping off in famous cities to meet the locals and see the sights. Her tour was documented and shared as she educated her followers on Irish history and phenomena. Not only was the campaign relevant and shared accurate cultural details, but it encouraged fans to interact with their brand by posting selfies in order to win a trip to New York. They used ‘here for the craic, not as a snack’ as their tagline, an Irish pun that had the right comedic tone to spark laughs rather than controversy. 

 

 

McDonald’s: Shamrock Shake

 

Finally, shamrock shake season. Every year McDonald’s releases their limited edition shamrock shake, a mixture of chocolate and minty goodness. Their timely release, limited timeline, and extensive media coverage creates a sense of urgency as people line up every year to get a green milkshake while it’s available. Rather than just releasing a mint chocolate chip shake they were able to turn their St. Patrick’s Day campaign into a hot commodity. 

Conclusion

 

Most importantly, make sure you use this holiday as a point of connection with all of your customers. You want your brand to be engaging and personal, so celebrating this holiday together is a great way to achieve this! Personalize your campaign and share any employees with Irish descent. Use real time trends  as a way to connect with your socially savvy customers. Run video marketing campaigns and highlight topics relating to St. Patrick’s Day. Holidays are a great time to gain new customers and connect with loyal followers. Personalize your marketing content this year and make this the best celebration yet!

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How to Start an Online Store (in 9 Easy Steps) https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/woocommerce-create-online-store/ Wed, 10 Feb 2021 17:14:47 +0000 https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/?p=10097 Online shopping has changed consumer behavior forever. If you sell any products or services, you can generally benefit from selling them online. However, breaking into the world of e-commerce and …

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Online shopping has changed consumer behavior forever. If you sell any products or services, you can generally benefit from selling them online. However, breaking into the world of e-commerce and launching your own online store can be daunting.

Thankfully, with the right tools you can build a fast, reliable online store without having to write a single line of code. Using these tools, you can launch your e-commerce business and start collecting payments, with minimal effort and very few upfront costs.

In this article, we’ll show you how to launch an e-commerce store using WordPress and the popular WooCommerce platform. Along the way, we’ll share advice on how to maximize your sales, by prioritizing your store’s performance and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Let’s get started!

Why You’d Want to Start an Online Store

Over the last few years, e-commerce has completely changed consumer habits. Today, online shopping is an indispensable part of the global economy, and online-only stores such as Amazon and eBay are some of the biggest names in retail. It’s difficult to even imagine a modern company that doesn’t offer customers the option to purchase products and services online.

In 2019, retail e-commerce sales worldwide amounted to $3.53 trillion, and 2020 seems set to be a record-breaking year for online retail. Throughout 2020, physical stores around the globe were forced to close in an attempt to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic. This caused online shopping to skyrocket, as consumers embraced e-commerce as a way to access goods and services in a safe environment. In June 2020, global retail e-commerce traffic stood at a record 22 billion monthly visits.

With more people shopping online than ever before, you could find a large audience for your e-commerce business. By launching your online store now, you can maximize sales while helping your customers access the goods and services they need, without the risks currently associated with in-person shopping.

Introducing the WooCommerce Platform

There are a number of e-commerce plugins available for WordPress. However, with over five million active installs, WooCommerce is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms.

Out-of-the-box, WooCommerce provides everything you need to build an engaging online store, sell products, and accept payments. This has made WooCommerce a popular choice among online stores of all shapes and sizes.

Today, WooCommerce is used by many big-name brands. Aeropress, Weber, and the All Blacks all rely on WooCommerce to power their online stores.

There’s also evidence to suggest that WooCommerce can help you build a successful e-commerce store. According to research, 28 percent of the top one million e-commerce stores use WooCommerce as their e-commerce technology of choice.

WooCommerce was originally developed by WordPress theme developer WooThemes. However, in 2015, WooCommerce was acquired by Automattic – the company behind WordPress – who run and operate WooCommerce today.

As an Automattic product, WooCommerce is a stable, reliable e-commerce solution that’s regularly updated. If you want to create an online store, it’s always worth considering WooCommerce.

Why Build Your e-Commerce Store With WooCommerce

As a free WordPress plugin, WooCommerce is accessible to organizations of all shapes and sizes. This includes startups and smaller businesses, who typically have tighter budgets than established enterprises. Using WooCommerce, you can launch an e-commerce store with minimal upfront costs.

WooCommerce has a range of features built-in, but it’s also extensible. If vanilla WooCommerce doesn’t meet all your needs, you can choose from a wide range of WooCommerce extensions.

If you can’t find the perfect extension ready-made, WooCommerce is open-source software. This means you can always modify or extend the WooCommerce code to suit your exact needs – or hire a coder to make these changes for you.

WooCommerce is also designed to be user friendly. Using WooCommerce, you can potentially build a professional e-commerce store without having to write a single line of code. If you have previous experience with WordPress, building a store using WooCommerce will likely feel intuitive and easy.

Collecting payments is one of the most important parts of running a successful e-commerce business. WooCommerce can securely accept cards, mobile wallets, and bank transfers. It also integrates with over 100 payment gateways including PayPal, Stripe, and Square.

Today, many customers shop on their smartphones and tablets. In 2017, $1.4 trillion of total retail e-commerce sales were made using a mobile device. In 2021, it’s estimated that mobile e-commerce could account for $3.5 trillion of total e-commerce sales.

If you’re going to maximize your revenue, it’s essential your e-commerce store is mobile-friendly. WooCommerce works across all devices, including smartphones and tablets. The WooCommerce team is also continuously improving the plugin’s performance for mobile. For example, WooCommerce 3.0 optimized the product gallery for mobile users, and added support for touch gestures.

How to Start an Online Store (In 9 Easy Steps)

In this section, we’ll show you how to build a complete e-commerce store, using WooCommerce and WordPress. As promised, you won’t have to write a single line of code. Let’s dive in, and start your e-commerce business!

  1. Choose the Right Web Hosting Provider

Your choice of hosting provider has the potential to make or break your e-commerce business. Downtime is always bad news, but for e-commerce stores downtime can mean an immediate drop in sales. To avoid downtime, we recommend opting for a provider that offers an uptime guarantee.

Performance is another crucial factor, as today’s consumer isn’t willing to wait around. Amazon calculated that a page load slowdown of just one second would cost them $1.6 billion in lost sales each year.

Performance can also impact your e-commerce store’s SEO. In particular, it can affect how quickly crawlers can index your content and serve it to customers. If your hosting provider doesn’t prioritize speed, your latest products and special offers may not even appear in Google’s search results for a significant period of time.

Google also uses page speed as a ranking factor in both its desktop and mobile search results. Research indicates that 39 percent of online purchases are influenced by a relevant search. Where your store appears in Google’s search results can have a huge impact on your sales and revenue.

There are many factors that can impact your site’s performance. However, your choice of hosting provider is one of the most important decisions you can make, particularly at this early stage.

At A2 Hosting, we take performance seriously. That’s why we’ve created a series of e-commerce hosting plans that are optimized for WooCommerce. These plans can deliver 20X faster page loads than competing WooCommerce hosting providers.

2. Set up WooCommerce

After activating the WooCommerce plugin, you’ll encounter a Welcome to WooCommerce screen. This is the WooCommerce configuration wizard, which is the quickest and easiest way to create a basic e-commerce store. By completing the wizard’s various screens, you can fast-track through much of the initial configuration, and get your e-commerce business off to a strong start.

If you accidentally dismiss the Welcome message, don’t panic! You can simply select WooCommerce from WordPress’ left-hand menu. WordPress will now display a list of all the steps required, in order to successfully complete the initial WooCommerce configuration.

WooCommerce's store setup menu.

You can now work your way through this list, by clicking each item in turn and following the onscreen instructions. Once you’ve successfully completed each task, it’s time to progress to the next step.

3. Add Extra Payment Gateways

As part of the setup process, WooCommerce will prompt you to add a payment gateway. A payment gateway enables customers to pay for goods and services using a payment system such as PayPal. By default, WooCommerce supports a number of core payment gateways. However, you can also add payment gateway extensions.

As part of the initial setup process, WooCommerce should prompt you to add at least one payment gateway. However, to maximize revenue we recommend offering at least two payment gateways.

There’s no guarantee all your customers will have access to the same payment gateway. Some gateways may also experience downtime. If you only support a single gateway, you’ll be unable to process payments until that gateway is back online. This could result is missed sales, and a significant amount of frustration on behalf of your customers.

Payment gateways may also have varying rules, regulations, and associated charges. Depending on factors such as geographical location, some payment gateways may represent better value for you and your customers.

You can enable additional payment gateways, by navigating to WooCommerce > Settings and then selecting the Payments tab. This screen displays all the payment gateways WooCommerce supports.

WooCommerce supports multiple payment gateways, including PayPal.

To add a payment gateway, click its accompanying Set Up button. This will open a menu where you can configure your chosen gateway. For example, if you’re configuring PayPal you’ll need to enter your PayPal email address and PayPal API credentials.

Once you’ve configured your payment gateway, select Save Changes. You can then enable the payment gateway by pushing its accompanying slider into the on position.

You can repeat these steps to enable multiple payment gateways. Just be wary of offering too much choice, as a list of unfamiliar payment options could potentially confuse your customers.

4. Create Your Product Categories

Product categories are an important way to organize your products, and help visitors find the items that matter to them. To ensure your e-commerce site is easy to navigate, it’s worth taking the time to define your product categories in advance.

You can always create more product categories as your store grows. However, by defining some product categories now, you can lay the foundations for an organized, logical e-commerce store.

To create a product category, navigate to WooCommerce > Categories. In Add New Category, enter the name of the parent category that you want to create.

Creating product categories in WordPress.

In Description, provide a description for this particular category. By adding a description to each product category, you can help search engines such as Google understand your site’s content, and rank it appropriately. Relevant, keyword-rich product descriptions can also help boost your Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Once you’re happy with the information you’ve entered, select Add New Category. Rinse and repeat to create multiple categories.

You may also want to create product subcategories. For example, you might create a Clothing category consisting of Sweatshirt, T-shirt, and Jeans subcategories. To create a subcategory, open the Parent Category drop-down. You can then select the parent category that you want to assign to this subcategory.

5. Create Shipping Zones and Shipping Methods

If you’re going to physically ship products to your customers, it’s important to create at least one Shipping Zone. A Shipping Zone might be a country, region, or even a specific zip code where you ship your items. Your customers will see only the shipping methods that are available for their zone.

To create a shipping zone, navigate to WooCommerce > Settings > Shipping. You can then select Add shipping zone.

WooCommerce shipping zone settings.

Give your zone a name, choose a region, and select Add shipping method. WooCommerce supports several shipping methods by default, including free shipping.

According to a recent survey, almost half of consumers prefer stores that offer free shipping. What’s more, 77 percent identify free shipping as the most important factor when making purchasing decisions. To drive conversions, you may want to offer free shipping when certain conditions are met.

WooCommerce also provides a local pickup option. This is great if you’re selling bulky items that are expensive to ship, or you anticipate lots of local trade. Note that if you offer local pickup then store base taxes will apply regardless of the customer’s address.

Make your selection, then click Add shipping method. You can repeat these steps, to create multiple shipping zones.

WooCommerce's shipping zones.

By default, WooCommerce generates the following option: Locations not covered by your other zones. If no appropriate zone is found, WooCommerce will default to this shipping zone. You can edit or delete this zone, as required.

You can also add more shipping options, using a WooCommerce shipping plugin. These plugins give your customers more options, and some even integrate with well-known shipping services such as DHL. Some popular choices include WooCommerce ShipStation Integration, and Advanced Shipping.

6. Create Your First WooCommerce Product

It’s time to stock those shelves! To create a product, select Products > Add New from WordPress’s left-hand menu. You can then give this product a name, enter a description, and upload some images that represent the item or service you’re selling.

Next, open the Product data drop-down menu and specify the type of product you want to create. Here, you have a few choices. WooCommerce supports simple products, which are defined as products that are shipped and have no options. The opposite of a simple product is a variable product. A variable product has multiple options, for example a coat that’s available in different sizes and colors.

A grouped product is a collection of related items. Finally, an external/affiliate product is sold on a third-party website, but featured on your e-commerce store.

The next steps will vary, depending on the type of product you’re creating. For example, if you select Grouped product, you’ll be prompted to enter the product’s Stock-Keeping Unit (SKU). This is a unique string that represents this product in your e-commerce store. Alternatively, if you select Simple Product, you’ll be prompted to specify whether this product is downloadable.

The e-commerce product settings menu.

After creating your product, it’s time to set your price. You can specify the everyday, non-sale price in the Regular price field.

You can now assign this product to at least one category, and add product tags. Both of these elements are essential for helping visitors navigate your store, and find the exact items they want to buy.

7. Create an Inventory and Stock Notifications

At this point, we’ve entered some basic information about our product. However, before we go ahead and publish the product, it’s a good idea to perform some stock management. This involves entering the total number of units currently in stock, and configuring some optional low stock warnings.

Stock management ensures you know when to order more stock. It also helps you avoid unpleasant situations, where you have to explain to customers that the product they’ve just paid for isn’t actually in stock.

To start, select the Inventory tab and create an SKU for this product. You can then enter the number of units you currently have in stock.

WooCommerce's inventory menu.

WooCommerce can email you when you’re running low on stock. If you want to receive these notifications, select the following checkbox: Enable stock management at product level. In Low stock threshold, specify the point where you’d consider this product to be approaching low stock.

Creating low stock notifications with WooCommerce

By default, WooCommerce doesn’t allow for back orders. However, back orders can help you secure sales, even when an item isn’t currently available. This can be particularly useful during peak retail seasons, where it’s generally accepted that some items may be temporarily out of stock.

If you want to permit back orders, open the Allow back orders drop-down. You can then select either Allow or Allow, but notify customer. If you choose the latter, the product page will display an Available on back order notice. The customer can then decide whether to purchase this product, fully aware that it’s not currently in stock.

8. Build an eBay-Style Product Menu

To drive conversions, your customers should be able to find their perfect product, in just a few clicks. WordPress supports a range of navigational menus. However, drop-downs are particularly popular, as selecting a parent category displays all the associated product subcategories. This is exactly what we see with many popular e-commerce sites, including eBay.

The eBay e-commerce website.

By default, you can’t add product categories to a WordPress menu. To enable product categories, select Appearance > Menus > Screen Options. You can then select Product Categories.

WordPress screen option settings,

Next, scroll to the Add menu items section. You can now add product categories to your WordPress menus.

A WordPress product category menu.

Since we’re creating a drop-down menu, position each subcategory beneath its parent. You can then grab each child category and drag it slightly to the right, so it appears indented beneath its parent.

Creating a e-commerce product menu, in WordPress.

You can now create your menu, as normal. To ensure this menu appears across your entire e-commerce store, we recommend setting it as your top menu.

9. Boost Your Revenue With Related Products

As an e-commerce store, you’ll naturally want to push customers towards purchasing additional products, or more expensive alternatives. One method is to display related products.

Related products, in a WordPress e-commerce store.

WooCommerce tries to generate related products automatically. However, you can often get better results by linking products manually. To start, navigate to Products > All Products. You can then open any product for editing, and select its Linked Products tab.

WooCommerce's linked products menu.

You can define two types of linked products: ‘upsells’ and ‘cross-sells’. Upsells are typically more expensive alternatives, whereas cross-sells are complimentary items. For example, potential cross-sells for a laptop might include a Bluetooth mouse, or a laptop bag.

Conclusion

If you sell products or services, chances are your customers are already online and looking to make a purchase. If you aren’t offering your goods via an e-commerce platform such as WooCommerce, you could be missing out on sales.

When building your online store, we’d recommend paying particular attention to your product tags and categories. These elements are often overlooked, but are vital for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

To climb Google’s search engine rankings, it’s also important to choose the right hosting provider. By opting for a hosting package that delivers high performance and an uptime guarantee, you can give your store the best possible chance of attracting a large volume of traffic, and securing lots of conversions.

Image credit: freestocks.

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3 Factors To Consider When Choosing OpenCart Extensions https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/3-factors-consider-choosing-extension-opencart/ Tue, 19 May 2020 17:34:13 +0000 http://www.a2hosting.com/blog/?p=1304 OpenCart is a popular turn-key shopping cart solution that strives to make it simple for people to get into e-commerce. Depending on whether you already have your own website set …

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OpenCart is a popular turn-key shopping cart solution that strives to make it simple for people to get into e-commerce. Depending on whether you already have your own website set up, OpenCart can provide the themes, templates and everything else necessary to create a site for your products, or you can add it to the back end of your existing website to enable customers to actually connect with payment gateways and make purchases.

OpenCart offers many features to prospective online entrepreneurs including unlimited categories, products and manufacturers as well as being set up for multiple currencies and search engine optimization just to name a few. One of its most powerful features, however, is the ability to expand its capabilities through extensions.

What Are OpenCart Extensions?

opencart extensions

The extensions, or plugins as they are also called, can either add a few nice touches to an existing feature of OpenCart or give it whole new tools. There are literally thousands of extensions available for this shopping cart. Some of them simply provide a new appearance to your cart through the downloading of themes. Themes can be searched by industry so you can have a cart that looks appropriate to your niche market. Some expand its functionality by providing additional foreign language, payment gateway, product feed, shipping method and customer wish lists and review options. As powerful as OpenCart is “out of the box,” you may find yourself needing capabilities that can only be offered by an extension. The following are three considerations you should have in mind when searching for the right one for you.

Make Sure a Particular Extension Is Compatible With Your Website

Compatibility is a major consideration when it comes to selecting the right extension. The issue of compatibility itself also breaks down into a couple different categories.  The second type of compatibility issue occurs within OpenCart even if you use it exclusively for your entire website. Like all software, OpenCart is constantly being improved, and you have to ensure an extension that you want to use works with the version of OpenCart that you are using. If you find over time that you are constantly having to pass over good looking plugins because the version of OpenCart software you are using is too old, it may be worth upgrading to the latest version. Unless you have a lot of custom changes to your current setup, such an update should not be too difficult, and there are YouTube videos a few minutes long that explain how to do it.Consider The Price of an Extension

OpenCart plugins range from free to $99. As a general rule, as in most other things in life, you get what you pay for. Typically, premium extensions will add some functionality that the free ones are lacking. However, this is where you need to have a good grasp of your particular requirements now and what they may be in the near future. Even if a $50 extension offers more features than the free one competing with it, do you need those extra features?

Currently, at the time of this writing, when searching the website for OpenCart on their extensions page, there were over total 13,000 extensions and a large portions of these are free.

With so many free ones available, if money is tight, especially if you are just starting your e-commerce empire, there should be a free one available with sufficient features to get you going. When the need occurs and funds allow, there will then be thousands more available to upgrade to. Also, remember that there is free and then there is practically free. When scrolling through the list of extensions on their website, there appears to be plenty that are just $10 to $20.

Do Other Users Find a Particular Extension Performs to Their Expectations?

User reviews are a powerful tool to use when beginning to shop for anything. They are the embodiment of the anonymous quote: “Intelligence is the ability to learn from your mistakes. Wisdom is the ability to learn from the mistakes of others.” A solid base of user reviews are a cornerstone of online marketplaces such as ebay and Amazon. In most cases, unless its a fairly new extension, you won’t be the first person to have tried it. Many of them will have reviews, and you should definitely read them. You should do this whether it’s a paid or free plugin.

Remember that time is money too and time lost installing and trying to use and finally having to get rid of a bad extension is time you can’t get back. If you are feeling adventurous or are one of those who like to be one of the first to try some new thing, then you may want to take a chance on an extension with no reviews. It may also be new and without reviews, but perhaps it’s from a publisher that has provided solid, quality extensions in the past. User reviews are there for a reason. Unless it’s a rare case where it is from a trusted publisher, take the time to learn from the mistakes of others because it definitely costs more time to make those mistakes yourself.

The Power to Make OpenCart the Way You Want it Is in Your Hands

OpenCart is a powerful tool that can help you catapult to online success. The fairly large community means there are discussion boards available to get questions answered, but its greatest asset is your ability to customize it to your liking through extensions. The large number of them means you will have pretty much any need covered and at any price point. All you have to do is go to the extensions tab on the OpenCart website, and type in a search or select a category, and let the aforementioned criteria lead you to just the right tool that you need.

Looking for powerful OpenCart Hosting? Look no further than A2 Hosting. Click here to host on our Turbo Servers featuring up to 20X faster page loads compared to competing solutions.

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Magento, OpenCart or PrestaShop: Which One Is Best? https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/magento-opencart-prestashop-one-best/ Fri, 25 Nov 2016 22:01:55 +0000 http://www.a2hosting.com/blog/?p=1730 Choosing the right e-commerce platform is a complicated matter. You need to be certain that you end up with a platform that can handle your inventory, process transactions, and provide …

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Choosing the right e-commerce platform is a complicated matter. You need to be certain that you end up with a platform that can handle your inventory, process transactions, and provide you with any advanced features that you need. If you make the wrong choice, you may find yourself facing unnecessary technical headaches and costly downtime.

Thankfully, there are plenty of top-notch e-commerce platforms available these days. That means you have the luxury of picking and choosing your favorite before jumping into anything.

To make your life easier, we’ve taken a look at three top e-commerce platforms: Magento, OpenCart, and PrestaShop. In this article, we’ll look at their features and ease-of-use, then tell you which one we think will fit your needs the best. Time is money, so let’s get started!

Magento

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When people think Magento, their minds often jump to the word “enterprise”. However, while the platform is a professional e-commerce solution, it can also power stores of any size. Magento is feature-packed and includes a simple admin interface, built-in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) functions, and integrated inventory management.

Magento powers over 200,000 online stores, and comes in three editions: Enterprise, Cloud Enterprise, and Community. This final option is free and is the one you’ll want to opt for if you’re new to e-commerce.

Magento’s Key Features

  • Open-source, with a healthy development community contributing to its ongoing development.
  • Offers a library with hundreds of extensions and can also interface with third-party applications.
  • Provides built-in SEO functions.
  • Includes order management tools such as wish lists, rewards systems, and gift registries.
  • Enables you to customize the checkout process.
  • Offers excellent scalability.

Ease of Use

To be honest, Magento isn’t the simplest e-commerce platform out there. You don’t need to be a developer to use it, but you’ll need to spend some time sorting through its documentation if you want to take advantage of its advanced features.

That may sound like a hassle, but the rewards are well worth the effort. Furthermore, Magento offers extensive documentation and a Resources Library, with dozens of talks and video tutorials on hand.

Who Would Benefit From Using Magento?

We would recommend Magento to e-commerce users that are fully committed to seeing their stores grow. The platform scales very well, and with its advanced set of features, your site will be able to handle just about anything.
However, learning to use Magento and growing a store could take some time. You should anticipate spending quite a bit of time learning, or even plan to hire a Magento developer to take care of the advanced stuff for you.

OpenCart

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OpenCart is an open-source e-commerce platform designed with ease-of-use in mind. Users can launch new stores quickly and customize its look thanks to a wide variety of free and premium themes. As is the case with most similar platforms, OpenCart also includes an extension system, which enables users to add advanced functions to their stores as needed.

The OpenCart admin dashboard is one of our favorites. It provides users with a comprehensive overview of their store’s sales and analytics at a glance, and it looks reasonably stylish.

OpenCart’s Key Features

  • It’s an open-source platform under regular ongoing development – in other words, it isn’t going away anytime soon.
  • Offers a comprehensive catalog of themes and extensions, with free and premium options.
  • Automatically tracks your store’s most important metrics and displays them prominently in the admin interface.
  • Accepts over 20 payment methods right out of the box.
  • Provides management of multiple stores from a single dashboard.
  • Enables you to differentiate your products according to their attributes (such as colors and sizes).
  • Built-in affiliate and discount systems.
  • Helps you manage backups right from your interface.

Ease of Use

It doesn’t get much simpler than OpenCart. Their official documentation can guide you through the entire process of setting up a store, and there are also plenty of advanced resources available.

Who Would Benefit From Using OpenCart?

OpenCart is an excellent choice for e-commerce users looking for a simple solution. It’s also ideal for those who need to manage multiple stores at once, since you can do so from a single dashboard.

We’re big fans of the way backups are built into the platform. If you struggle when it comes to performing regular backups, you might want to give this platform a shot.

PrestaShop

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PrestaShop shares rather a lot of similarities with the two other entries in this article. It’s an open-source e-commerce platform with an extensive collection of themes and modules, and it’s also backed by a vibrant community.

PrestaShop’s Key Features

  • Open-source e-commerce platform.
  • Hundreds of free and premium themes and modules available.
  • The default theme is fully responsive.
  • Offers a live editor, which enables you to customize the look of your store from the front end.
  • Provides a network of certified partners that can provide help with any aspect of the platform.

Ease of Use

If you’ve ever used WordPress or any other similar Content Management System (CMS), PrestaShop’s interface should be easy to grasp. As is the case with OpenCart, the PrestaShop back end displays your analytics prominently, but in this case, the information is much more detailed.

The platform offers excellent documentation to help you learn the ropes. And if you choose to skip the documentation and dive right in, you should have no trouble learning the platform on your own if you have a bit of prior experience working with websites and CMSs.

Who Would Benefit From Using PrestaShop?

If you like OpenCart, PrestaShop should be right up your alley. The platform feels a bit more polished, and you get access to a lot more modules and themes than the former.

However, the real decision comes down to expense. A lot of PrestaShop’s modules and themes have a price tag, and they tend to be quite high. If you don’t mind spending some money to get your shop looking and behaving the way you want, consider this platform.

Conclusion

If ease of use and low cost are your primary considerations, OpenCart is a natural choice. It doesn’t offer the advanced features or scalability that Magento does, but it’s a lot easier to get up and running. PrestaShop, on the other hand feels more polished, but costs can ramp up quickly even for small stores.

Overall, each of these e-commerce platforms offers a unique set of features, and each one is perfect for certain users. Let’s take one final look at each:

  1. Magento: Provides the best scalability and many advanced features.
  2. OpenCart: Is the simplest platform to use, and it’s costs are relatively low.
  3. PrestaShop: A very polished platform, with a broad range of premium modules and themes available.

Image credit: StockSnap.io.

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Self-Hosted vs Hosted E-Commerce Platforms: Which Is Right for You? https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/self-hosted-vs-hosted-e-commerce-platforms-right/ Tue, 25 Oct 2016 15:39:42 +0000 http://www.a2hosting.com/blog/?p=1643 Nowadays, anyone can get an online store up and running in a matter of hours. That’s all well and good, unless, in your hurry, you pick the wrong type of …

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Nowadays, anyone can get an online store up and running in a matter of hours. That’s all well and good, unless, in your hurry, you pick the wrong type of platform and are forced to either start from scratch or live with a store that is less than perfect.

There is a multitude of e-commerce platforms available nowadays, each with its own unique features. The first step you need to take is to choose one to serve as the backbone of your e-commerce empire. And it all begins with a simple decision: hosted or self-hosted?

Hosted and self-hosted platforms each come with their own set of pros and cons, let’s find out what they are and why you should care.

Self-Hosted E-Commerce Platforms

When we say self-hosted e-commerce platforms, we’re referring to a variety of open source applications that require web hosting to function. Think of purchasing a hosting package and installing WordPress. Self-hosted e-commerce is pretty much the same thing. Only, rather than setting up a blog, you’ll be installing a platform for an e-commerce website.

Pick an open source e-commerce platform and you’ll know exactly what you’re getting. The most popular platforms are well-documented and you (or your developer) can make any changes you require. This gives you a degree of control over your online store that hosted platforms simply cannot match. If you need additional features, you can either find plugins and extensions to enable them, create them yourself, or hire someone to build them for you.

Since self-hosted platforms can be set up anywhere, you’re free to choose your preferred hosting service. Not being tied to a centralized service means you can move your store if you outgrow your provider or find a better deal elsewhere. It may sound complicated, but these days most hosts, including us, will help you set things up.

Self-hosted platforms sound pretty great, right? However, you shouldn’t make up your mind just yet. Let’s move on to discussing their shortcomings before jumping to any conclusions.

The Cons of Self-Hosted E-Commerce Platforms

  • They are usually harder to set up than their hosted counterparts. At the very least, you will need to find a hosting provider, choose your e-commerce platform, and go through an installation and setup process.
  • In most cases, there is no centralized support system you can contact if you need help or run into an error. So you will need to become adept at looking through the documentation and searching community resources to troubleshoot problems for yourself, or hire a qualified developer to help you.
  • Depending on your hosting provider, costs can pile up once your store begins to grow.

Now that we’ve detailed both sides of the coin let’s take a look at two examples of self-hosted e-commerce platforms.

WooCommerce

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Technically, WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin, but that doesn’t make it any less potent. This platform powers 30% of all online stores and is part of the Automattic family of WordPress products.

What’s more, the WooCommerce team will happily answer support questions through their help desk. This platform is a great fit for users that are comfortable using WordPress and can be used to power stores of all sizes. Click here to get started hosting WooCommerce.

Magento

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Magento
is a leading e-commerce platform which powers over $50 billion in transactions per year. It’s not as easy to pick up as WooCommerce, but most people would agree that it’s a more robust platform.

That being said, we would recommend Magento only to users with at least some basic level of web development experience. Despite its thorough documentation, the platform can be a bit much for first-time e-commerce users. It’s overkill for small operations, but a perfect solution for professional businesses.

PrestaShop

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PrestaShop
may not be as popular as the previous two entries on this list, but this scrappy open source e-commerce solution shouldn’t be discounted. The platform has grown tremendously over the past few years and is now used to power over 250,000 storefronts.

PrestaShop is remarkably simple to use. It’s a perfect fit for users looking for a free and open-source platform with a friendly interface and powerful shop-building capabilities. In addition, PrestaShop maintains a roster of partner agencies that will happily set up shop for new users who don’t want to do it themselves.

OpenCart

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Despite its somewhat-outdated website, OpenCart remains a strong contender among self-hosted e-commerce platforms. Its setup process is as simple as any of the other three we’ve mentioned so far – anyone who knows their way around a web host should be just fine.

As far as features go, OpenCart integrates 20 payment gateways right out of the box, supports multiple currencies, and enables you to sell digital products. These features make it a solid pick for users that wish to support sales across the globe instead of focusing exclusively on local markets.

Hosted E-Commerce Platforms

Hosted e-commerce platforms are another option worth considering. These platforms provide an all-in-one e-commerce solution that includes hosting, a shopping cart function, and technical support. In most cases, you pay a monthly fee that varies depending on the size of your store, and most hosted e-commerce platforms offer reasonable prices and discounts if you pay for several months in advance.

Moreover, hosted services have a clear advantage over their self-hosted counterparts: they are far simpler to manage. In exchange for a fixed rate, you get hosting and access to a support team that takes care of any issues for you. You will, of course, still have to add items and customize your store yourself, but everything else is taken care of.

To put it simply, hosted platforms lower the technical barriers to entry, and offer premium support and customization capabilities (usually in the form of themes and plugins). That’s a pretty sweet deal. So you must be asking yourself, what’s the downside?

The Cons of Hosted E-Commerce Platforms

  • Hosted e-commerce platforms generally cost more than their self-hosted counterparts.
  • Your monthly or annual fees will grow as your store attracts more traffic and requires more powerful features.
  • Customization possibilities, while available, will be limited. You will only be able to use pre-approved themes and plugins. This protects you from a security standpoint but can be stifling in terms of creativity and limit the store features you can implement.
  • Switching platforms is costly and time-consuming, if not impossible, depending on the scope of your store.

With those caveats in mind, lets check out two popular hosted e-commerce platforms.

Shopify

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Shopify
is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms around these days. It powers more than 300,000 stores which, together, have made approximately $20 billion in sales. On top of powering complete online stores, Shopify also provides basic shopping cart functionality for websites built using other platforms such as WordPress.

BigCommerce

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BigCommerce
is an ambitious platform that markets itself to both small businesses and enterprises. Some well-known brands, such as Toyota and Martha Stewart, have built their online businesses on the BigCommerce platform. Despite being a hosted solution, it offers in-depth customization and a robust set of features.

Conclusion

Both self-hosted and hosted e-commerce platforms are powerful and flexible enough to fulfill even the most demanding set of requirements. So, the choice boils down to how you prefer to run your business:

  1. Self-hosted e-commerce platforms: They provide you with absolute control and can be set up and run on a shoestring budget, but they require more time to set up and maintain.
  2. Hosted e-commerce platforms: They enable you to get things up and running quickly, and take care of the technical details for you. Yet, they cost more than self-hosted platforms and are less customizable.

Image credit: Negative Space.

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Top 4 Places to find Opencart Templates https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/top-4-places-find-opencart-templates/ Thu, 21 Jul 2016 16:42:52 +0000 http://www.a2hosting.com/blog/?p=1176 OpenCart is one of the most popular eCommerce shopping cart programs out there because it’s easy to setup, cheap to operate, and flexible. The software offers everything you need to …

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OpenCart is one of the most popular eCommerce shopping cart programs out there because it’s easy to setup, cheap to operate, and flexible. The software offers everything you need to create a fully-functional online store and can be further modified using extensions and integration.

But there is one area where OpenCart can give you problems: users often have trouble finding template designs that work for them. Yes, it’s possible to create your own custom templates for OpenCart, but the process requires more technical skills than many new shop creators possess, and the cost of a designer can be prohibitive. To work around this issue and minimize costs, most shop owners should use pre-built templates.

If you’re planning your new OpenCart shop or looking for a fresh look, then checkout these four place to find unique, well-built OpenCart templates. Each of these shops has some unique characteristics and variation in the types of templates they offer. But they all offer high-quality templates that will work with your hosting and look good on different devices. Best of all, you can choose an OpenCart theme that’s easy to install!

1. Themeforest
Themeforest offers one of the largest collections of templates and themes online. It’s best known for it’s WordPress themes, but they also carry hundreds of OpenCart templates as well. On Themeforest, you can search for templates using different keywords, technical requirements, and layout preferences. The search and filter capabilities also allow you to narrow your options based on pricing, popularity, and how recently the template was updated. If you’re not sure what you’re looking for, or want to have a lot of options, then Themeforest is a smart place to go for OpenCart templates.

In terms of theme quality, Themeforest is known for attracting top-notch designers that support their themes with plenty of documentation and updates. Most themes you find will be stuffed with features and be aligned to newer design trends like responsive design, sliders, popups, etc. Templates from Themeforest are often a good idea if you don’t want to manage a lot of different extensions and vendors because they pack a lot functionality into the designs.

2. Template Monster
Template Monster is another large marketplace featuring themes and templates for the most popular content management systems. Similarly to Themeforest, Template Monster offers you the ability to search, filter and sort templates to find the right fit for your store. However, Template Monster also works hard to categorize it’s OpenCart templates and offers filters for software compatibility: the categories let you narrow your results quickly and the compatibility information ensures you don’t waste time on templates that don’t work for you.

Template Monster templates tend to be very well-designed and have a professional look to them. The site also prides itself on having certain requirements like responsive design, Vqmod support, and lazy loading. These requirements mean that the theme will work well on mobile and be easier to modify without altering core files. If you’re looking for a standard-looking and stable template, then Template Monster is a good place to shop.

3. Zero Carts
Zero Cart doesn’t offer as large a selection of OpenCart templates as the two sites we’ve already discussed. But they do offer more than one hundred themes and their site offers a different shopping experience. Rather than displaying templates in a typical store layout, Zero Carts curates themes in lists based on price, design features, and business type. On Zero Carts’ pages you’ll get more information about the theme category and more discussion of what makes the themes standout. It’s a very different shopping experience, but it also makes the site good for research and figuring out what type of designs you like.

The themes on Zero Carts run the gamut from conservative to super-niche. You don’t have as broad a selection as other shops, but you can find designs with more character.

4. Creative Market
Creative Market is the smallest shop on this list. At the time of writing, they had roughly twenty-five templates available. They are being included because they offer themes from smaller, independent designers that you might not find anywhere else. While the selection is much smaller, you’ll find that the designs are often more eye-catching than what you see on other sites. The smaller selection also makes it easier to browse and preview templates without feeling overwhelmed.

You’ll find that the designs and coding of Creative Market templates are comparable to what you see on the other sites. The main difference is that the features aren’t standardized, so you can’t assume that every template you see has all the same bells and whistles.

Use Templates to Make Your Store Standout
With OpenCart, you can trust that you’ll have the business features you need to sell products with very few headaches or limitations. That said, the template you choose will have a lot of influence on your success because the look of your store can either convince people to stay and shop, or drive them away. If you want to succeed, then you’ll need to find a template that appeals to target audience and supports key selling tools.

The sites mentioned here will give you a wide selection of affordable, stable and interesting designs to choose from. Take the time to think about what you need, review the pros and cons of each template, and select the one that matches your style and your audience.

Quick Note: Other Things to Consider
OpenCart and a good template will give you a great looking store with a good shopping experience, but there are some other factors you should keep in mind. Having competitive prices is essential if you’re selling easy-to-find items, and good customer service is how you turn first-time shoppers into repeat buyers. If you’re planning on building a long-term business, then also think about your hosting. A service like A2 Hosting’s, OpenCart Hosting can help you optimize the site for better performance and stronger security. Having the right hosting will mean less chance of your site going down or being attacked.

Thinking about using OpenCart for your site? Click here to see the hosting services A2 Hosting offers for OpenCart!

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A Little Known Way To Protect OpenCart Sites & A 7 Minute Fix https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/one-little-known-way-protect-e-commerce-site-opencart-plus-7-minute-fix/ Tue, 05 Jul 2016 12:05:01 +0000 http://www.a2hosting.com/blog/?p=1205 When and wherever there is economic crisis, criminal activity tends to rise. Petty crime seems to never diminish, but one area of crime that seems to be constantly rising is …

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When and wherever there is economic crisis, criminal activity tends to rise. Petty crime seems to never diminish, but one area of crime that seems to be constantly rising is fraud. Too many unscrupulous people see it as an easy solution to getting someone else’s money. Fraud is the use of deception to gain money or anything else of value. In a world of global networks, impersonal computer authentication, and mobile access, e-commerce fraud is common.
Online fraud often comes from orchestrated groups who operate on a large scale. Like commercial fishermen with a net, they bombard hundreds of sites looking for a score.The MaxMind fraud detection system is supported by OpenCart 2. MaxMind is a fraud detection system that reduces the risk of credit card abuse, fraud, and chargebacks against your online store. It uses the minFraud service to determine the risk level in every transaction, based on such factors as whether the order originates from email accounts, proxies, or IP addresses that are determined to be possible sources of fraud identified by the minFraud Network.

The Benefits of Using MaxMind

  •  Easy to install, use, and maintain.
  •  Low monthly costs – prices start as low as one half cent per transaction.
  • Rates all transactions – A minFraud riskScore is assigned to all transactions. The riskScore is calculated using minFraud’s algorithms from a low of 0 up to 100. The score represents the likelihood that any given transaction is fraudulent.
  • Risk level alerts – Regardless of whether it’s a previously rated user, minFraud
    alerts let you know when additional transactions from the same source represent a higher risk.
  • Device Tracking – available add-on helps catch fraudulent users who change proxies or IP addresses while browsing your website or between visits.
  • Overseas order tracking – Bank Identification Number (BIN) to country matching.
  • Gift card tracking – minFraud Network prepaid and gift card identification.
  • No expiration – each transaction involves a query of the eFraud Network, with certain limits to the amount of queries issued. However, unused queries carry over to the next billing term and do not expire.
  • Independent service – MaxMind is a privately-owned American company based in Waltham, Massachusetts.
  • Experience – from it’s founding in 2002, MaxMind has been an industry leader in providing IP intelligence and detection of online fraud. Users of minFraud benefit from an adaptive, dynamic, and automated service to help them spot risky e-commerce transactions and share this information over the minFraud Network.
  • Intelligent data gathering – MaxMind captures IP intelligence through GeoIP. Thousands of companies use GeoIP to locate Internet users and display ads and content tailored to their use. GeoIP is known for its accuracy and performs analytics, enforces digital rights, and help route IP traffic. Businesses use GeoIP data to acquire insights into customer connection data, such as ISP and connection speed.
  • Recognized leader – minFraud is an industry-leading service that helps e-commerce business identify and prevent online transactions and reduce the need for personal review of orders. minFraud screens and evaluates over 80 million transactions per month, allowing thousands of online businesses to benefit via client and partner networks.
  • Reseller program – MaxMind also carries a Value-Added Reseller program that partners with GeoIP for the opportunity to distribute GeoIP-branded custom databases as part of a bundled solution using IP intelligence. These data bases have a small footprint and accurate data recording.

How to enable MaxMind

1. To activate this service in OpenCart 2 you need to first obtain a MaxMind License Key from the MaxMind website. You can sign up for a free trial account to test the service for yourself. The free trial allows you a license key and up to 1,000 standard and 100 premium minFraud queries. When you have signed up and gotten your license key you can proceed with installing MaxMind to your OpenCart 2 store.

2. Go to your admin dashboard and the Settings section from the main menu. Click the Edit icon next to the name of your store.

3. Go to the Fraud tab to view the MaxMind configuration page. There are just a few settings to check before activating the service.

4. Use MaxMind Fraud Detection System – select Yes to enable MaxMind

5. MaxMind License Key – Enter or paste your MaxMind license key.

6. MaxMind Risk Score – All orders at your store are scored by MaxMind with a rating from 0 to 100. It’s recommend to use manual verification of orders with a fraud score over 10. However, some orders, especially those from overseas, might have high fraud scores despite no fraudulent activities. You should start with a low score and raise it as needed if you’re seeing too many incorrect fraud ratings.

7. MaxMind Fraud Order Status – Select the designated status of orders marked suspicious by MaxMind

When you have configured these settings click the Save icon at the top right corner. MaxMind’s minFraud system is now active.

Be sure to check periodically to ensure there are no fraud identifiers on non-fraudulent orders, and raise the Risk Score as needed.

minFraud is not a means of establishing customer credit for online business purposes, but a system for identifying and rating the possibility of fraud in each online transaction. MaxMind and it’s eFraud Network are a cost-effective solution to fraud prevention using intelligent metadata and the global network to gauge all possible risks to your business.

Looking for secure, high performance OpenCart Hosting solutions for your store? Click here to visit A2 Hosting now.

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OpenCart Improvements – Three Overlooked Features https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/opencart-improvements-three-overlooked-features/ Wed, 25 May 2016 19:12:46 +0000 http://www.a2hosting.com/blog/?p=1303 OpenCart offers a number of benefits to online store owners everywhere. Its sleek, intuitive design has made opening and maintaining an online store easier than it has ever been before. …

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OpenCart offers a number of benefits to online store owners everywhere. Its sleek, intuitive design has made opening and maintaining an online store easier than it has ever been before. OpenCart improvements includes a design that has been optimized so your site looks good no matter what device you open it on, whether it is your PC, phone, or tablet. Modifying your OpenCart design from the seller’s end has never been easier with the virtual file modification. You don’t have to waste time with repeated separate modification.

That is why we have assembled three of the niftiest, if lesser known, features that OpenCart has to offer. Some of these involve adding brand new compatibility so that your OpenCart account is more customizable, while others have simply improved on features you already know about. Either way, with these overlooked features, OpenCart is definitely more powerful and useful for the online store owner.

OpenCart Improvement #1.) Increased Payment Gateways

As an online store owner, easily the most vital component of your service is the ability to transfer funds. If your potential clients cannot pay you, then they cannot receive the product or service they desire. Likewise, if you cannot accept payment from your customers, then you may be missing out on an untold number of sales.

That is why OpenCart has taken express pains to ensure that regardless of the online payment gateway your customers uses or prefers, OpenCart has you covered so you no longer have to fret over all of the sale that could have been.

Since the internet has been around, oh, I do not know, some two to three decades, different online transaction services have sprung up like a vegetable garden. Some of these have essentially formed the bedrock for online financial transaction management, while others are relatively new faces to the game. As more and more people connect to the web, the availability of a variety of different payment services is bound to occur. Moreover, since many of those payment services have fees to utilize their transaction management, it is unlikely we will see any kind of decrease in their population.

If the past couple of years are any kind of indication, we can expect to see more and more online transaction services spring up to accommodate a dizzying array of niche markets. That is why OpenCart continues to expand the list of accepted payment gateways.

OpenCart Improvement #2.) API Integration

Face the facts. Your available time each day is limited. You have a million things to keep track of, and you really do not want to have to all of them on our own. However, it seems like a waste of money to pay someone to do something you can do on your own. If only there was a way you could streamline all of those tedious, but necessary, tasks you need to complete so your online business can run as smoothly as possible.

Again, Opencart feels your pain, and they have taken steps so you don’t have to suffer through these tasks.  APIs are essentially software programs that do the coding for you. Quite simply, any decent API worth its existence streamlines the tedious task of having to write out every individual line and command of code that makes your site look and function the way that it does.

You may already know how to do a number of these functions yourself, but you probably have much more important things to do with your time besides sitting in front of your computer, pecking away at the keyboard, just so potential customers can see and adequately navigate your site on their Android or iPhone.

For those of you still very much an active part of this vibrant community of online entrepreneurs, but without the technical savvy to write this code out long form, these API extensions allow you to easily navigate and make changes to your website that you would otherwise need to pay someone else to do.

OpenCart Improvement #3.) Bootstrap Integration

We live in a mobile world. With more and more people conducting an increasing amount of business online, their tastes have gone the way of brick and mortar, passed the stationary desktop, and onto their phones.

However, mobile optimization has been a persistent problem ever since the first iPhone jumped on the scene. Here, OpenCart saw another problem that needed a remedy, and the solution was a simple matter of connecting to software that was already on the market.

Bootstrap has exploded on the software scene as the premier service used to ensure the content you have on the web, which is generally designed for desktop PCs, looks just as good and works just as well on your phone.

Supporting HTML, CSS, and JS, Bootstrap has made it so the most widely used programming languages are easily adapted and optimized for mobile and your potential customers are never the wiser. Remember, if your customers try to connect to your site on their phones and something does not work, they are not going to go to their computer. They are going to go to a competitor.

OpenCart has made it a point to be responsive to the complaints and needs of its users and will continue to do so, upgrading and innovating to satisfy every commercial need. Placing an emphasis on user results, OpenCart recognizes the need for an online store to not simply work, but to exceed the expectations of your potential clients.

They have added numerous additions that allow your store to look as good as it can, but some of their best improvements—that may have flown under the radar—focus on the seller. From API integration to Bootstrap to an expansion of payment gateways, OpenCart seems to genuinely care about its clients on both ends of the consumer spectrum.

Don’t overlook the need for high performance OpenCart Hosting for your store. Sign up with A2 Hosting now!

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Top 3 OpenCart Features Making Checking Out In The Cart Easier. https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/top-3-features-opencart-can-make-checking-cart-easier/ Wed, 20 Apr 2016 15:16:16 +0000 http://www.a2hosting.com/blog/?p=1173 OpenCart makes it easy for solopreneurs, small businesses and even large corporations to set up a functional, secure, easy to use online store. As an open source software, OpenCart incorporates …

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OpenCart makes it easy for solopreneurs, small businesses and even large corporations to set up a functional, secure, easy to use online store. As an open source software, OpenCart incorporates the ideas and solutions from today’s best and brightest technology minds. One of the reasons OpenCart has enjoyed enduring success in a notoriously fickle e-commerce marketplace is because it is simple to install and feature rich for real-time customization.

In this post, learn about the top 3 features in OpenCart today that can make your customers’ experience of checking out online even simpler, more secure and easier!

Feature 1: OpenCart makes both domestic and international sales transactions a breeze.

The first feature that makes OpenCart a must-have for e-commerce websites today is the ease of use for both domestic and international customers.

Whether you have a small startup with big international goals or you currently serve an international clientele, OpenCart comes ready to go to work for you in multiple languages, multiple currencies, multiple tax rates and an easy-to-use shipping calculation system.

The shipping options are another part of what makes checkout so easy. You can offer a wide variety of shipping options so customers can control their shipping costs. If you prefer, you can also set your store to offer free shipping, simple flat rate shipping or even store pick-up, which is becoming an increasing popular and in-demand option today.

With 329 languages to choose from, you are also able to serve customers from all over the world without translation challenges. The same applies to payment options. You can select from 41 payment gateway options and many more via the available plug-ins library, mixing and matching payment options to best meet your customers’ needs.

Feature 2: OpenCart now gives you the option of managing multiple stores from within a single interface.

If you currently operate multiple online stores or have plans to do so, OpenCart makes it easy to customize each store’s setup and look, set product pricing, establish a default currency and tax rate and even split your stores between retail and wholesale customers.

And since OpenCart is now automatically Search Engine Optimized (SEO) and also offers customized meta tag options for individual products, you can feel confident that each page of your store(s) will be indexed by the major search engines, boosting your browser search rankings over time.

The SEO functionality also makes it easier for you to implement, track and manage coupons, discounts, specials and promotions between your stores on OpenCart. OpenCart’s modules give customers familiar categories to browse through, such as Bestsellers, Featured, Latest, Specials and Category. You can also add Google Analytics to your OpenCart e-store so you have additional data about where your customers come from and who they are.

In fact, one of the best features about being able to set up and manage multiple stores from within your master OpenCart interface is that you can then run reports and do your analysis from within your back-end administration portal.

OpenCart offers three different sales reporting options to help you analyze your stores’ performance from every angle:

  • Sales Report. Gives you sales by day, week and month.
  • Products Viewed. Lets you know which products are generating the most online traffic and interest from store visitors.
  •  Products Purchased. This report shows you which products are delivering the highest sales.

Feature 3: OpenCart offers CRM functionality.

If you are now operating as a wholesale (B2B) store, you can also use your OpenCart business administration portal as a customer relations management (CRM) tool to set different prices for different customer groups, show pricing only for customers who have created an account on your store and are logged in and even set up quantity discounts for customers who want to order in bulk.

But perhaps most importantly, you can use OpenCart’s open source template system to either select a template that most closely matches the rest of your website or import your current website parameters so there is a clear visual match when customers migrate over to your e-store.

This is a critical facet in maintaining customer trust when shopping online. When your storefront matches the rest of your site visually, customers will feel more inclined to share their sensitive financial data with you and complete their online purchases.

A Sample Customer Check-Out Scenario:
So let’s say a potential customer decides to visit your online store, which is powered by OpenCart. You have set up your e-store to look exactly like the rest of your website, so the customer has a seamless experience from the start.

You are running a special, and your visitor browses over to Specials and sees a product he’d like to learn more about. The product information displays in his native language so he doesn’t struggle to understand what he is reading. When he adds the product to his online cart, he can choose whether to check out as a guest or create an account.

At checkout, he is offered a variety of shipping options to help him control both delivery time and price. He sees a number of familiar payment options and chooses one he feels safe using. His checkout is seamless and secure, and he instantly gets an email confirmation of his order that matches the look of your online store.

Your customer has sped through his online checkout experience and it is very likely that you have just earned yourself a new happy customer and perhaps a repeat loyal customer as well!

About A2 Hosting

The number one complaint many online shoppers have today is an e-commerce storefront that is slow to load or times out mid-purchase. With A2 Hosting’s OpenCart Hosting, you will never have to worry about losing customers due to slow site speed. With our high performance SwiftServer platform and Turbo Servers that offer up to 20 times faster page loads, your store will be online whenever your customers are!

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