New e-commerce sites are launching every day. Shopify and WooCommerce are two of the biggest e-commerce platforms powering millions of websites around the world. If you are considering starting a new site yourself or are making changes to your current site, you might be wondering what the difference is between Shopify and WooCommerce. Since each platform has its strengths and weaknesses, we will break down some of the key differences between them and help you decide which platform is best for your business.

Hosting

The biggest difference between Shopify and WooCommerce is that Shopify is a hosted e-commerce solution while WooCommerce is a self-hosted solution that requires a separate hosting account. 

Maintenance

Shopify manages all the core updates and security of e-commerce sites on their platform. WooCommerce on the other hand requires a much more hands-on approach to maintenance, updates and security monitoring. 

Cost

The cost of a Shopify site typically runs between $30-300 per month depending on plan. Custom themes and apps are additional one-time or subscription-based fees in addition to the monthly Shopify fees. WooCommerce is built on WordPress and is free to install but you will need to pay for hosting which typically runs between $150-500 a month depending on your resources and maintenance requirements. 

Payment Processing

Both platforms also require some form of payment processing. Shopify has its own payment processing plan but also supports other major payment processors such as PayPal and Authorize.net. WooCommerce also supports many of the major payment processors. Payment processing for both platforms typically costs between 2-3% per sale.

Features & Apps

You can add features to your site via apps in Shopify and plugins in WooCommerce. Each platform has its own repository of apps/plugins and you can also find free and paid apps/plugins on third-party party websites. 

Most of Shopify’s apps are provided by third-party app developers and are hosted on the developer’s servers. Shopify app developers are responsible for maintenance and updates of the app and have different levels of access to your store’s data. 

WooCommerce plugins are also primarily offered by third-party developers but the plugins are installed directly on the server or hosting platform running WordPress. WooCommerce plugins options include free, one-time fee or subscription based. 

You have a lot more flexibility with how your store is set up and it’s easier to add custom features to WooCommerce.

So, which platform should you use for your e-commerce website? 

The platform you choose depends on 

• What type of site you are building
• How many custom features you will be adding to the site 
• How you plan to support the site

Shopify is a great choice for standard e-commerce sites with high volume and not a lot of static pages. 

We recommend WooCommerce for sites with a lot of custom features, when clients are already familiar with WordPress or plan to have a lot of non-product pages and/or a blog alongside their e-commerce site. 

Iceberg Can Help

The e-commerce experts at Iceberg Web Design can look at how you plan to use your e-commerce site, which products you want to sell, and any requirements for custom features or 3rd party integrations. Based on this information, we can help you to decide which platform will work best for your e-commerce website. 

And when you are ready to build your e-commerce site, our specialists can work with you through every step of the process to ensure your site is exactly what your business needs.

Contact us today!

The post Shopify Vs. WooCommerce – Which Platform is Right for You? appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

If you still plan to go shopping on Black Friday this year, here are some tips:

Call ahead to make sure the store you want to shop at is going to be open and what their Covid policies are. The following stores began Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving last year, but have already announced that in 2020 they will be closed on the holiday:

•         Walmart
•         Target
•         Kohl’s
•         Bed Bath & Beyond
•         Best Buy
•         Ulta

If you still feel the urge to brave the stores…

Give other shoppers (and yourself) plenty of space, bring hand sanitizer, and remember to wear your mask.

Take it easy on essential workers who are doing their best to make your shopping experience a good one.

Stores have been relatively tight-lipped about the hours they will be open on Black Friday this year since many wonder about the effects of the predicted second-wave of the novel coronavirus. Good Housekeeping’s website has a list of store hours that they keep updated as information comes in.

Business Owners

Are you a business owner who is concerned about making your bottom line this holiday season? Online sales are where it’s at! People feel safer and more comfortable shopping on their laptop in their pajamas. Start preparing now. Ensure that your e-commerce site is in top shape for Black Friday 2020.

•         Is your site intuitive and easy for customers to use? It is common for customers to leave a site altogether if the experience trying to use it is frustrating.
•         Do you have high-quality, optimized images that consumers can zoom in on?
•         Take your e-commerce site as seriously as you did when you opened your brick and mortar retail store.
•         Consider how you will get products to your customers. There are countless ways to ship your products, which will be the right one for your customers. The cheapest way isn’t always the best way (but it might be).
•         Make sure that your site is mobile responsive. Many people are using smartphones and tablets for their online shopping. Half of all, online transactions are completed on a mobile device. If your site doesn’t resize itself so that it is still easy for the customer to use, it is time for a redesign.
•         Protect your online store from cyber threats with PCI compliance and stringent security. Have an SSL certificate, a strong firewall, two-factor authentication, and a privacy policy in your website’s footer.
•         Keep the checkout process simple. Often people abandon their carts because of surprise shipping costs and time-consuming checkout.
•         Consider the importance of reviews that sell your products for you. Iceberg’s Reputation Management Services are perfect for anyone who wants to use their website to sell or advertise to customers. Call 612-440-8762 today for a free demonstration of how this service can revolutionize the way your customers see your business.

Is all this a little overwhelming?

Black Friday and the holidays will look different in 2020, but it can still be as profitable as ever. If you are a business owner whose website could use some updating, contact Iceberg Web Design today to see how easy we can make the process.

The post Black Friday 2020 Will Be Different appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

As more and more of our daily activities shift to being online, it makes sense that most shopping happens online as well. Almost every company sells their products online and it’s a mystery as to how they stay competitive, especially during the busiest shopping time of the year… Well, let’s clear things up with

Go Mobile

We are living in the age of smartphones where people use their iPhone more than they would use a laptop, desktop, or tablet. While most businesses have taken advantage of this opportunity and created mobile-friendly sites that are easy to navigate, many still have yet to board the mobile train. Creating an online store that works flawlessly on mobile browsers will allow for easy click through and provide less interference during the search process.

Include All the Holidays

People love to shop, especially when they have a good reason to. Most forget, or don’t even know, but the holiday season is made up of much more than just Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. For instance, there is Singles Day, which reached a record high of $30.8 Billion in sales this year across Chinese e-commerce shopping platforms. There’s also Small Business Saturday, which reached a record high of $3.02 Billion in online sales. Make sure to engage beyond traditional holidays and reach into other markets!

Here is a list from Brightpearl of key dates to be aware of during the holiday season for your business.

Quick and Painless Shipping

It’s already difficult getting people to actually buy the items that are in their cart… Why make it more difficult by charging them a shipping fee once they decide to go through with the purchase? It is highly beneficial to offer free and fast shipping at checkout, especially during the holiday season because most people procrastinate buying gifts or they are tight on money. Offering free and fast shipping will make all the difference.  

Looking to Sell Online? Call Us!

We have worked with numerous businesses to create e-commerce websites that are user-friendly and help increase conversions. Feel free to check out our portfolio to explore some of our e-commerce websites and make sure to call today for a free consultation!

The post E-Commerce Holiday Shopping Trends appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

If you decide to sell a product online, you have many options to choose from when looking for software to power your online store.

The most popular website publishing platform today is WordPress. In fact, more than 25% of all websites today are powered by WordPress, with the closest competitors not even coming close. WordPress is popular for a number of reasons. Our website development firm uses WordPress as our primary publishing platform for quite a few reasons:

• WordPress is Open Source, meaning that the software is, ultimately, free and the license allows you to modify it as you need.
• Because it is Open Source, WordPress is consistently being updated for features and security.
• WordPress is fully expandable, with thousands of free and premium add-ons readily available.
• WordPress is, by far, the most user-friendly website publishing platform for our customers, who don’t need to know HTML to update their website.

Given the global popularity of WordPress, it isn’t surprising that WooCommerce, a popular e-commerce add-on for WordPress, is the leading global e-commerce platform today.

What is WooCommerce?

WoocCommerce is a free e-commerce add-on (plugin) that embeds directly into any WordPress website. This cool open source plugin is capable of selling any product straight from your website. When you install WooCommerce on your website, the entire basic online purchasing process is set up for you: product management, adjustable price points, shopping cart, and checkout process.

To add WooCommerce to your WordPress site, simply go to the Plugin section, perform a search for WooCommerce, and download and install. Once WooCommerce is activated, you will be able to edit all of the settings to configure your unique online store and begin selling.

WooCommerce: The Good

Many businesses turn to this popular plugin to implement what complicated coding would take several hours and heaps of money to create.

There are a lot of delightful features to the WooCommerce plugin, and it is difficult to create an exhaustive list of all of the great features WooCommerce includes out-of-the-box. Let’s take a look at some highlights:

• Free: WooCommerce in its basic form doesn’t cost you a dime; many of its add-ons are also free.

• Lots of Add-ons Available: A variety of free/paid add-ons means WooCommerce leaves no stone unturned. With multiple ways to pay and different types of orders, your customers can have the ability to shop online, create online bookings, or personalize their orders.

• Easy to Use: This is a plug and play add-on. One installed you can simply enter your product information, add your PayPal account, and let it do its thing. It comes with every page template you need for checkout, so you don’t miss any steps in the buyer’s journey. WooCommerce even has an onboarding guide that walks you through the entire process.

From the customer’s vantage point, buying from a WooCommerce-powered website is incredibly smooth. Like any other online store you select your products, shipping, and payment methods. No need to contact the business directly, or go through any hoops – the entire online purchasing experience is streamlined.

• Adjustable Shipping Rates and Taxes: WooCommerce allows adjustable shipping and tax costs. You enter a flat rate based on the location of your customers and chose if you want to include taxes. You can make some items ship for free and others cost or even base the shipping fee on how ‘bulky’ the item is.
• Coupon Integration: Got a special? Easily set up online coupons for your customers!

• Mobile Friendly: Everyone is browsing and buying via their phones these days, which is why it’s important your site is mobile friendly. Of course, your main website needs to be mobile-friendly as well, but WooCommerce is built to perform exceptionally well on mobile devices.

• Order History, Order Status, Customer Accounts: Shoppers appreciate a website where they can fully manage their orders. WooCommerce makes this easy, with an integrated account section for your customers, and customizable e-mail templates to keep your customers updated about the status of their orders.

WooCommerce: The Bad

No plug-in is perfect; WooCommerce is no exception and has drawbacks you should weigh carefully against your business plan. Long term advantages of using WooCommerce should be as important as the short term—you want this add-on to grow with you, not hinder you. With that being said, there are some things that are not too attractive about WooCommerce.

• Doesn’t come with themes: WooCommerce’s look and feel is based on your current WordPress theme. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, if your theme integrates with WooCommerce, and you enjoy tweaking and personalizing your site. However, it will take some time to set the store to your exact tastes. We set up the vast majority of our websites in WordPress and can help customize your WooCommerce installation to match the rest of your website.

• It’s a Resource Hog: Generally, website hosting plans include specific upload space and resources. WooCommerce can eat up a lot of it so you may have to budget for a better hosting plan.

• Plugins Slow Down Performance: Incorporating lot of WordPress plugins can slow down the performance of your site. WooCommerce is no different, especially as it takes up a lot of space and memory.

• Prices Can Add Up: While WooCommerce includes a lot of features out-of-the-box, many store owners will find that they need to purchase premium plugins in order to achieve the e-commerce website their business needs. WooCommerce has released a number of premium (paid) extensions to improve store performance, and there are hundreds of other online market places and authors with premium WooCommerce extensions available.  E-commerce features such as allowing customers to book services, sign up for subscription products, or personalize their products with images or text fields will require the purchase of a premium plugin license. These licenses often run on a per-year subscription basis, and can cost anywhere from $29-$500 per year depending on the feature you need.

WooCommerce: The Ugly 

If you are trying to put together a website without support from a professional development company, WooCommerce may not be the best fit for you. There are many downsides to WooCommerce that are down right ugly – and may be a deal breaker for the average DIY business owner. If you are the type of person who prefers to build your own website, consider these downfalls to WooCommerce before you sink hundreds of hours into building your store.

• Coding and Scripting Conflicts: While one of the great features of WooCommerce is the ability to customize it with plugins, more often than not two independent plugins written by different authors may clash, and create chaos on your website. This is because most premium WordPress plugins use script libraries to function, which may conflict with the script libraries other plugins are using.We have worked with customers who, for example, have a great website add-on (let’s say a Wish List) on their WooCommerce website, and later wished to add an AJAX sorting plugin. The two plugins conflicted with one another and the site had a host of issues, from PHP and jQuery warnings, to broken page layouts. Unless you are familiar with the languages that WordPress and WooCommerce plugins are written in (PHP, jQuery, Javascript, and MySQL), you won’t be able to troubleshoot scripting conflects. You can always hire a professional to assist, but this will come with a high price tag. It’s best to know what you’re getting into before you hit download.

• Vulnerable to Hacking: WordPress is particularly subject to hacking, as is WooCommerce because they are open source (coding is easily available to everyone). If you use WordPress/WooCommerce we advice you have a reliable developer and hosting provider who can keep your website updated and is clued in to new security releases.

Is WooCommerce Right For Your Business?

WooCommerce is wonderfully user friendly, and great for online stores. But you must ensure you have the support and help of professionals alongside it if you want peace of mind.

At Iceberg Web Design, our experienced developers can create your WooCommerce store, while making sure that you don’t experience any of the bad or ugly features outlined above. We also offer secure, managed WooCommerce hosting, full support, and we guarantee security updates and virus mitigation should any issues arise.

The post WooCommerce: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

There are several reasons why you should add e-commerce onto your retail business website, here are a few reasons:

→ Having an e-commerce website is like being open 24/7/365. Customers have access to view your products even when you’re not open. They can compare different products, prices, sizes, ingredients, reviews, etc all in the comfort of their own home. They can Christmas shop at 2am when they can’t seem to fall asleep. They can access your entire store from the swipe of their finger when it’s most convenient for them.

→ By having an e-commerce website, you can overcome geographical limitation. If you have a physical store you are limited to that certain area. Can you imagine the possibility of the entire world having access to shop and browse your products?

→ E-commerce websites allow you to collect customer data. I’m not talking about when you are at the local retail store and they ask for you zip code at the check-out counter. I’m talking about customer data that will help you to improve your branding activities and build customer loyalty. You can improve your product mix, increase/decrease your product pricing, and market to your existing customer base more effectively all by looking at your customer data. You’ll also be collecting mailing addresses of customers who shop on your website too. You can use those mailing addresses for future marketing: to send your current customers postcards, coupons, or notices of specials that will encourage them to go back to your website to buy more.

→ Another reason why you should add e-commerce onto your retail business website is because this is the new, modern way that society is shopping. If you have a retail business but you’re not selling products online, you truly are missing out on reaching your potential as a business. Your website is your most important marketing tool and investing in a e-commerce website will give you a promising return on investment.

There’s no better time to start then now- If you’d like to get started on your e-commerce website click here for a FREE consultation and we can help you grow your business!

The post Should I Add E-Commerce Onto My Retail Business Website? appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

In the fourth quarter of 2013, the year’s prime holiday shopping season, a whopping 32% of Google search traffic came from mobile devices. One study showed that 30% of all e-commerce website traffic came from mobile devices in 2013. And with so many holiday gifts being smartphones and tablets last year, it stands to reason that those statistics will only increase for the 2014 holiday season.

Now that November is here, the 2014 Holiday Shopping Season is in full swing. Is your website ready for online customers this year? Whether you have a retail or service business, online holiday marketing is essential. Even though you may not plan to sell products on your website this year, you will likely see an increase in website traffic this quarter. Shoppers are not just looking for gifts this year – they are also shopping for home improvement projects, plumbing fixes before holiday guests arrive, carpet cleaning services, car detailing, restaurants to stop at between gift-buying outings…and the list goes on.

Below are 6 simple things you can do to make sure your website is ready for your customers this holiday season:

1. Make sure your website is optimized for mobile viewing.

This sounds like a no-brainer, but so many e-commerce websites are still using software from 2009 (or earlier!), and haven’t yet invested in modern website programming or design. If you’re a business owner with an online storefront, do you know how easy it is for your customers to purchase from their smartphones? Give it a try – pull out your own smartphone, and see how many clicks it takes, and how much you have to pinch-and-zoom just to add a product to your shopping cart.

Mobile friendly websites are not only good for customer sales and retention, but they also increase trust for your business and your brand. Consumers want to feel safe when purchasing from their smartphones, and if your website has been built so smartphone shopping is simple, your customers will know your site has been built with mobile shopping in mind.

2. Update your home page for the Holidays

First impressions are crucial – and your website visitors are going to be influenced to act within 3 seconds of loading your website. Do you have a slideshow on your home page? Incorporate some fun new holiday-inspired photography into it! Showcase some of your products or holiday specials.

A basic re-design of the home page of your content can attract clients without breaking the bank. Looking for ideas? We can help give you some suggestions!

3. Spruce up your SEO with some holiday marketing language

Did you know that you can control exactly what Google displays to your customers? Give your business a search online – the title of your website pages and the description that falls below them are all things that can be edited by your website developer. Marketing a product or a service specifically for the holiday season? Have a great Christmas promo going on? Say so (in less than 150 characters) right on Google’s organic search results.

If you don’t have an online store, but want to encourage people to call or e-mail you for seasonal specials or holiday orders, publish your contact information directly in this description so people can contact you fast.

4. Get your online inventory and shipping schedules together early

Nobody likes it when they purchase a product online, only to receive a phone call three days later to find out that their item is out of stock or won’t be delivered until December 26th. Make sure your holiday shopping schedule, shipping expectations, and return policy are clearly stated on your home page and thought the checkout process on your website.

5. Publish a Holiday E-mail Newsletter

An e-mail newsletter is a great way to contact potential customers directly and inexpensively. A branded e-mail newsletter cost less to send out than printed postcards and letters – and recent research shows that the return on e-mail marketing is actually higher than that of postal mail.

People are more inclined to impulse shop during the holiday season, so if you send out an e-mail newsletter featuring some great, inexpensive holiday gifts or must-haves, you may find some new customers visiting your online store this season.

6. Spice up your Social Media posts

Create funny, themed Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ posts this holiday season. Fun facts, jokes, and information are great ways to engage comments on your social media profiles. And don’t forget the picture! Adding a picture to a social media update will increase the post’s chance of being seen and shared. There are a number of websites that offer free holiday stock photographs (like this one) – or be creative and hire a photographer to come out and take some pictures of your staff dressed in Elf suits.

Need some extra help with your holiday marketing?

You can accomplish a lot of these things yourself, or with a little help from your website developer. Need some more inspiration or help with marketing this holiday season? Contact us for a free website consultation – we would be happy to talk about your current website, offer some suggestions for how you can make improvements, and talk about a long term marketing strategy to bring you more business.

And most importantly – don’t forget to have a happy holiday season yourself!

The post Website Marketing Strategies for the 2014 Holiday Season appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.