Category: Web Application

7 Business Benefits of Choosing an Enterprise CMS

Posted on by galaxy-admin

An enterprise content management system is the beating heart of your organization’s digital presence. CMS users can avail themselves of a variety of document types and content on a website, then modify and expand the information posted without the need for a web programmer to set up the site and make updates.

When evaluating a content management system, managers need to contemplate numerous factors, including: 

  • How is what you have now compared to what is available in the market? 
  • What is the longevity of the solution you have chosen?
  • If you decide to invest in something different, how do you know it will be worth your while?

In this guide, we’ll help you learn everything you need to know about modern enterprise CMS, including:

  • Why an enterprise CMS specifically is key
  • What are the benefits of choosing a solution for enterprise CMS
  • Important factors to consider when you’re choosing an enterprise CMS

What is Enterprise CMS?

A content management system (CMS) is a software system that allows businesses to create, manage, and publish content for their websites, apps, and other digital assets.

As a central hub and publishing engine for marketing content, the CMS is critical to the success of any company’s marketing team. This is why it is critical for enterprise marketing leaders to select a specific enterprise CMS.

An enterprise CMS is a content management system that provides enterprise marketing departments with the features and capabilities they require to engage prospects and ultimately drive revenue.

Why go for Modern Enterprise CMS?

A content management system is used by more than 60% of websites. The following advantages demonstrate why choosing the right CMS is important to most businesses with an online presence – and why it should be important to you.

#1 Increase Your Website’s Functionality With Plugins

Most CMS provides a standard set of features and functions that are sufficient for the majority of users to have a basic platform. It is very likely that your requirements are different or that you require additional functionality. A plugin can fill this void and provide features that aren’t included with the standard CMS.

There are thousands of free and paid plugins available for almost any job or feature you can think of. There is an active community that develops software plugins that can extend the functionality of popular CMS platforms. Some are paid, while others are free to use.

#2 Omnichannel Selling Support

Omnichannel selling is another important advantage of using a CMS platform. Organizations frequently need to entice customers to visit their websites by marketing through various channels with different content that provides each user with insight into their brand. Marketing on each channel necessitates entering all of the brand’s information on each channel separately.

#3 Control Over Your Website Design

One of the most significant advantages of CMS over traditional websites is complete control over your website’s design. The main advantage of using CMS platforms is that they make website design and customization very easy and simple.

With a traditional website, you or your web development agency will need to scrap your old website in order to redesign a new one from scratch. The existing content will also need to be manually transferred to the new website design. This is inefficient and complicates and prolongs the website design or redesign process when compared to using a CMS.

#4 Multi-language Capabilities

Personalization is becoming increasingly important for brands that operate in more than one country to engage customers in meaningful ways. Having an enterprise CMS that can handle multi-language content, including translation and localization tools, helps ensure that you can deliver the right content in the right context no matter where it is needed in the world.

#5 Mobile Readiness

Over 90% of websites now report that mobile devices generate more unique visitors than desktop computers. According to Google, mobile visitors are 5X more likely to abandon a website that hasn’t been optimized for mobile use. According to Google, “mobile-friendly sites rank higher in search results.” At this point, an enterprise CMS capable of delivering content to your mobile apps and experiences is required.

#6 Automation Through Integration

As your business expands, so will your content workload, which is a great reason to use automation to do more of the heavy lifting. Through integrations with artificial intelligence-enabled tools, an enterprise CMS can enable content teams to leverage technology to automate routine tasks that would otherwise take humans a long time to complete.

#7 Easy Website Maintenance 

CMS websites make it simple for you to manage your site’s upkeep. If you believe you should have control over your site or if you want an in-house team member to maintain it, CMS makes it simple and quick. A CMS’s template-based structure makes it simple and quick to create pages and posts.

Wrapping Up

If you’re looking for a CMS that can help automate the many manual tasks associated with content management, enable efficient team-wide collaboration, facilitate content delivery that improves customer experience, and make the most of all your content assets and data, look no further. It’s time to implement an enterprise CMS.

If you aren’t quite ready to abandon your current traditional CMS, this in-depth guide will help you learn about 3 Things To Know Before Switching To A New CMS. Want to see what an enterprise CMS looks like in action? Contact our CMS team today.

About Galaxy Weblinks

We are your offshore CMS development partner and have state-of-art infrastructure, and development expertise on the latest CMS technology trends. We have hands-on experience in customizing websites using multiple platforms, be it Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, catering to different business needs. We offer assistance from building custom CMS websites to website migration and maintenance processes.

Top 7 User Frustrations on the Web and How To Fix Them

Posted on by galaxy-admin

What were the most challenging aspects of the website’s user interface that you encountered today? Users are often dissatisfied with minor details that go unnoticed. Vitaly Friedman, the famous author of Smashing Magazine, summarized the key areas that may exasperate your users. If you do not fix these issues on your website, it may harm your user experience. 

In this article, we’ll go over the top 7 most common user frustrations and how to address them. 

#1 Scroll hijacking

Scroll hijacking is when a website’s scrollbar is manipulated to behave differently. Scroll hijacking is commonly used to display specific animated effects. Crisp illustrations and fine animations, on the other hand, do not always make for a great web experience.

How to fix the issue?

So, how do we apply this incredibly cool effect practically and rationally? 

First, you must evaluate the user group and the type of experience you are attempting to create.

  • Is the group accessible to everyone?
  • How high is the visitor’s traffic?
  • Does it use multiple devices? 
  • Is the website ADA compliant?

Are you planning to create a website for a niche group, such as a med-advanced tech user, an early adopter, or device-specific? If you are contemplating adding parallax scrolling effects, you can consider this example –

Source: Valaire

This page scroll design is fantastic! You don’t get the impression that a robot has taken over your ability to navigate the content. You have complete control over the scroll speed and your position on the page. It’s a fun experience that makes me want to go out and explore more! The location indicator is useful, and the sticky menu items provide a sense of stability to an otherwise erratic design.

#2 Tiny click targets

The smaller the interactive elements (links, buttons, and other user interface controls), the more errors the user will make when interacting with your website.

How to fix the issue?

  • Touch targets should be easy to use with your fingers. The touch target should be 9mm x 9mm in size on average. According to Material Design, touch targets should be at least 48 x 48 px in size.
  • Padding should be added around touch targets. Microsoft recommends padding between touch targets of 10mm.

#3 Not working “Back” button

One of Jakob Nielsen’s ten usability heuristics for user interface design is user control and freedom. It states that users require a marked “emergency exit” to leave the unwanted action without having to go through a lengthy process.

How to fix the issue?

The Back button in a browser is the equivalent of an emergency exit. If you are concerned that users will lose their data by clicking the Back button, it is best to warn them by displaying the message “Your work will be lost” when they click the Back button.

#4 Small-sized text

Despite the recent popularity of video formats, the majority of information on the internet is still written. As a result, good readability and legibility are critical for a positive user experience.

How to fix the issue?

  • The font size should be at least 16px. 16px for body text is a good starting point, but keep in mind that the larger the screen size, the larger the text.
  • Line height should be 1.5em or 1.6em for best readability.
  • Always test your designs on a real-world device.

#5 Unexpected content shifts

You’re about to press the link. You move your cursor over the link and click it, only to realize you’ve made a mistake. Instead of the intended link, you click on the ad. Isn’t that the case?

Typically, the content shift occurs as a result of dynamically loading content. Because this operation is asynchronous, dynamic content is inserted into the page and replaces existing content.

How to fix the issue?

To work around this issue, measure the height of the dynamic content and hardcode it as a (min-height) for the container in CSS as done in this verge webapp.

Frustrations
Source: Verge

#6 Sign up walls

Sign-up walls are a requirement to create an account to use a service. Sign-up barriers keep users from exploring the service.

All software, including websites, should be built with this principle in mind: You should always try before you buy.

How to fix the issue?

Users usually try something new, form an opinion, and then decide whether or not to use a service. In the context of news websites, for example, it is possible to provide a limited number of articles that users can read without creating an account and then ask them to create an account only when they engage.

#7 Confusing forms

Forms are an important part of the user journey; they are used to log in, sign up, check out, and so on. As a result, it is critical to provide clear instructions both before and after submitting the form.

How to fix the issue?

  • Avoid relying solely on color to denote an error. Always provide actionable feedback to facilitate a correct entry.
  • If the form is too long, consider dividing it into logical sections and displaying a progress bar to show the user where they are in the process.

Wrapping Up

One of the most important aspects of creating a great web design is keeping up with industry trends and implementing the ones that will work best for your web product. Contact our UI/UX design experts if you want to create custom software with a pleasant and unique user interface.

5 High Impact Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Ecommerce Website

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Every business owner wants to increase traffic on their ecommerce website. Because more traffic translates to greater conversions. However, getting more traffic is not as easy as just saying that you need more traffic. 

It’s crucial for growth and survival when you’re starting and it’s essential to sustain when you’re mainstream. In this blog, we’ll discover 5 high-impact ways to drive consistent traffic to your business.

1. Paid Social Media Ad Campaigns

The world is on Social media and there is no better way to reach your potential customers than social media platforms. On average people spend 5 hours/day on social media of their preference. With the help of paid social media ads, you can deliver highly targeted ads to the customers who are most likely to convert. 

  • Facebook ads

Tactic type: Short-term

Effort: Low

Impact: High

FB’s robust advertising platform lets you target users based on their interests, behavior, location, and more. 

  • Instagram ads

Tactic type: Short-term

Effort: Low

Impact: High

Instagram has more than one billion active users worldwide, with 90% of accounts following a business according to Instagram.

  • Pinterest ads

Tactic type: Short-term

Effort: Low

Impact: High

According to Pinterest, 72% of active users say they use it to find new brands and services, and, in another study, 90% of respondents said Pinterest gives them ideas about which products to purchase.

  • Google Ads

Tactic type: Short-term

Effort: High

Impact: Very High

Google is different from others as it lets you advertise your products and services directly to people actively searching for them. 

2. Engage and be a part of a community

Engagement as a strategy is way more complex than it might look at first; like commenting on posts. To get people to visit your website you need to have an impact on them via a thoughtful dialogue, share and talk about things that drive emotion, and get people pumped. 

  • Get friends and family to share

Tactic type: Short-term

Effort: Medium

Impact: Moderate

It might not look as impactful at first but it’s essential to drive that initial momentum, traffic, awareness, and sales.

  • Drive excitement with contests and giveaways

Tactic type: Short-term

Effort: High

Impact: Very High

Everybody likes freebies. Contests and giveaways are a great way to get more followers on Instagram, increase social media engagement, and drive traffic to your website. 

3. Influencer marketing is well… Influential

Influencer marketing is building relationships with influencers with a huge following and getting them to talk and promote your product or service. You need to ensure that if the influencer’s content and reach are relevant to your industry, otherwise it’s futile.  

  • Send free samples to Instagram influencers

Tactic type: Short-term

Effort: High

Impact: Very High

4. Content Marketing is a necessity

Content Marketing is one of the most organic and very reliable ways to get loyal visitors to your website. It typically includes the creation of interesting, informative, and engaging content. Blogs, podcasts, videos, guides, and ebooks are some of the popular mediums to engage your target customers with. 

Content marketing is also considered a best practice as far as search engine rankings are concerned. You can use free tools like Google Keyword Planner and Keyword.io to identify relevant content that matches customer’s intent and be visible in front of a larger audience in the process. 

  • Write blogs to provide information or solve problems

Tactic type: Long-term

Effort: High

Impact: Very High

According to WordPress, the world’s largest blogging platform, each month 409 million people view more than 20 billion blog pages. If blogging is a part of your strategy, then you’d need WordPress experts to get the most of your potential traffic. We can help.

5. SEO will help amplify your visibility

If your customers can’t find your store online then all the efforts will go in vain. When people search for your products your store should be amongst the top results to appear. A solid SEO strategy and consistent efforts to apply that strategy will ensure that you appear in those top searches. 

SEO or Search Engine Optimization tweaks your website to increase its chances of ranking highly in search results for relevant keywords.

  • Write titles that match search intent

Tactic type: Long-term

Effort: Low

Impact: High

Google explains, “Titles are critical to giving users a quick insight into the content of a result and why it’s relevant to their query. It’s often the primary piece of information used to decide which result to click on, so it’s important to use high-quality titles on your web pages.”

Pro-tips for efficient SEO:

  • Create unique titles for each page.
  • Keep page titles to less than 55 characters.
  • Keep writing style consistent with the use of title or sentence case across all your pages.
  • Include your target keyword.
  • Ensure you match the search intent of the query.

All the tactics we’ve covered in this blog are tried and proven to be very effective. Moreover, the tactics will help you optimize your website for conversions and increase high-quality traffic. An increase in high-quality traffic could mean more customers and more sales; which is our ultimate goal. 

About Galaxy

Our team at Galaxy prides itself in designing some of the best Ecommerce solutions for businesses globally. Contact Us right away for a free consultation!

5 challenges in Web Application Development

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Web applications are everywhere on the internet! Every time you send a mail, do online shopping, or browse your social media accounts, you are using a web application. They usually work on all the browsers and can be easily accessed on mobile and tablet computers, while providing a seamless experience as the native application.

Web application development involves client-side and server-side programming to develop an application accessible over a web browser. We have identified 5 problem areas that you would need to address to build a successful and high-performing web application.

Speed and Performance

Getting a user on a website is a big challenge in itself. You wouldn’t want to increase the bounce rate just because your web application did not load in time. Un-optimized database, unexpected traffic spikes, troublesome third-party integrations, poorly written code are all recipes for slow websites.

Deploying CDN (content distribution network) to ensure that the server requests get balanced in one good solution. Also, make it a point that your developers should be aware of the amount of media on the webpages, any plugins, configurations, etc in the planning stage itself. This way they can make provisions from the beginning instead of optimizing codes till the last minute.

UI/UX

A good chunk of your users will be visiting your websites via smartphones. The UI must be simple, intuitive, and accessible. This includes:

  • Predictable navigation
  • Clear and simple copy
  • Engaging visuals
  • Easy to understand typography

Make sure that designers don’t get carried away with the aesthetic aspects that they miss out on the usability, accessibility, and intuitive factors. The end goal is to give users an experience that will increase your recall value and make them visit your website again and again.

Security Threats

Web security is a vital task that needs to be done right. SSL encryption is one such standard practice that enables encrypted communication between web browsers and servers. The most common threats are:

  • Cross-site scripting
  • Cross-Site Request Forgery
  • SQL Injection
  • Phishing
  • Shell Injection
  • Buffer Overflow
  • Session hijacking

Developers should implement the security measures right from the start and keep updating as your application grows. Your user data needs to be protected at all costs, as even a small vulnerability can be exploited by hackers in any way. Thus, the right coding with encryption should be done to protect you and your website from cyberattacks.

Tech stack

Your tech sack should include the right combination of servers, frameworks, programming language, and tools. The right tech stack will do wonders for your present and plans. Your project size, its anticipated growth, your team’s expertise, competitors’ tech stack, etc. will help you decide upon your tech stack.

You can also look for tools and software that have a huge community so that any queries that your teams may have are resolved quickly. Look for the documentation available as well so that it becomes easier for your team to have reliable information at their disposal.

Scalability

Scalability is essentially believed to be about load balancing between servers at peak traffic times. You need to consider the following points:

  • Develop software that runs smoothly on clusters of servers
  • Implementing cloud computing from a future point of view
  • Implementing Service orientation architecture (SOA)

Keeping your website future proof ensures that as you grow, your website does as well without troubling your users. This again needs to be considered from the start and assessed as to your customer base increases.

Working on creating the best web app for you and your users can be a daunting task but you don’t have to shoulder the burden all by yourself. We at Galaxy Weblinks believe in giving the best to our clients, get in touch with us here and see for yourself how we can make things less troublesome for you.

Transforming Businesses Through Effective UX Audit

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Did you know that a well-designed user interface could raise a website’s conversion rate by up to 200%, and a better UX design could yield conversion rates up to 400%? This isn’t just a statistic; it’s a wake-up call for businesses to recognize the immense potential of a robust UX strategy. 

In the digital world, users have grown accustomed to seamless, intuitive, and enjoyable digital interactions, making UX a critical factor for businesses. A UX Audit, therefore, is the compass that guides businesses through the intricate journey of creating a user experience that not only delights but also delivers measurable business outcomes.This comprehensive analysis isn’t just about improving the visual appeal; it delves deeper into how a product resonates with its users, aligning business goals with user needs.

The Essence of a UX Audit

A UX Audit involves a methodical evaluation of a product’s user interface (UI) and user experience. It’s like a health check-up for a website or an app, diagnosing problems and prescribing solutions. Why is it crucial? Because it identifies usability issues that hinder user satisfaction and conversion rates, impacting the bottom line directly.

The Critical Role of UX Audit in Business

A UX audit is crucial for businesses to optimize their digital storefront, ensuring every element is optimized to meet user expectations and drive business goals. A Forrester Research report shows that every dollar invested in UX brings $100 in return, highlighting the direct correlation between effective UX and enhanced business performance. For example, ESPN.com saw a 35% increase in revenue after incorporating community suggestions into their homepage redesign.

Integrating UX Strategy with Business Vision

UX Strategy is about creating a vision for a product that aligns with the business goals. It’s crucial for Product Managers and Business Executives to understand that UX is not just a phase in development; it’s an ongoing process of learning and improving. 

A well-crafted UX strategy bridges the gap between user needs and business goals, fostering customer loyalty and enhanced user experience . For example, by understanding and addressing the needs of users, Slack grew rapidly, attributing its success to its obsession with customer experience and feedback.

Actionable Insights: Elevating Business through UX

The following are some specific measures that businesses can take:

  1. Conduct Regular User Research:
  • Why It’s Crucial: User research is the backbone of any successful UX strategy. It provides insights into your users’ behaviors, needs, and expectations.
  • How to Implement: Engage with your audience through surveys, interviews, and usability tests. To better understand your target audience, create user personas.
  • Real-World Impact: Companies like Airbnb have consistently used user research to understand their customers, leading to redesigns that significantly increased bookings.
  1. Implement A/B Testing to Refine User Interfaces:
  • Why It’s Crucial: A/B testing allows you to compare different versions of your website or app to see which performs better. It’s a data-driven approach to improve UX.
  • How to Implement: Test elements like CTA buttons, page layouts, and content placement. Use tools like Optimizely or Google Optimize for streamlined testing.
  • Real-World Impact: E-commerce giants like Amazon use A/B testing extensively to refine user experiences, resulting in higher engagement and sales.
  1. Track User Behavior and Find Pain Points using Analytics:
  • Why It’s Crucial: Analytics offer a window into how users interact with your product. When determining where improvements are needed, this data is essential.
  • How to Implement: Utilize tools like Google Analytics to track metrics such as bounce rates, page views, and user pathways. Analyze these metrics to understand user behavior patterns.
  • Real-World Impact: Companies like Netflix leverage analytics to tailor their user experiences, leading to increased viewer engagement and subscription rates.
  1. Regularly Update Your UX to Align with Evolving User Needs and Technological Advancements:
  • Why It’s Crucial: The digital landscape is ever-changing, and so are user expectations. Regular updates ensure your UX keeps pace with these changes.
  • How to Implement: Stay abreast of the latest UX trends and technological advancements. Periodically revisit and revise your UX to ensure it remains relevant and effective.
  • Real-World Impact: Tech leaders like Apple consistently update their UX, contributing to their reputation for innovation and customer satisfaction.

A Lesson from Dropbox

Dropbox’s success story is a great example of the power of user-centric design. By simplifying its design and focusing on usability, Dropbox increased its conversion rates and user engagement, leading to significant business growth.

Conversion Optimization: A UX Driven Approach

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is a critical outcome of effective UX. By enhancing the usability and user journey on a website or application, businesses can significantly increase the likelihood of converting visitors into customers. Moreover, a focus on simplifying navigation, improving page load times, and creating intuitive user journeys can lead to remarkable improvements in conversion rates, as evidenced by Walmart’s online sales boost by 1% for every 100ms improvement in load time.

UX for Business Growth

UX is way beyond just the aesthetics; it’s a strategic tool for business growth. Several companies have leveraged UX for substantial business growth. Effective UX can lead to increased customer loyalty, higher customer retention rates, and more effective customer acquisition. 

For instance, Airbnb redesigned their website and improved the user interface, they doubled their bookings. This is a testament to how impactful UX can be in scaling a business.

UX and ROI: Measuring and Maximizing Impact

Measuring the ROI of UX is about understanding its impact on user behavior and business metrics. Enhanced user satisfaction, reduced customer support costs, and increased sales are tangible indicators of a successful UX strategy. These help businesses understand the value derived from their UX investments.

Crafting Digital Excellence with Galaxy Weblinks

In today’s business ecosystem, where user experience is the battlefield, a UX Audit is your strategic advantage. At Galaxy Weblinks, we don’t just design; we innovate and create experiences that translate into measurable business success. Our approach is rooted in a deep understanding of both user needs and business goals, ensuring that every project we undertake maximizes both user satisfaction and business growth. Let Galaxy Weblinks be your partner in navigating the complex world of UX, helping you turn user experiences into a powerful engine for business growth.

5 Factors to consider for selecting the right CMS

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Although CMS products are all designed to produce similar results, they all do not offer the same features. It is critical to ensure that the product you select will work for your organization. There are numerous CMS available for you to choose from, and therefore, the process of selecting a CMS can often take longer and more complex.

The amazing content you produce needs to be presented and managed perfectly, or you will not make the right impact. Let us ponder on the factors that should be considered while selecting a CMS? What features should you put first? 

In this blog, we’ll show you the answers to these questions.

#1 Technology integration

In an era when technology affects every aspect of your business, your CMS must integrate seamlessly with your other marketing, sales, communication, and project management initiatives.

Tip: Begin by conducting a technology audit. Make a list of the tools/technologies you use to complete the following tasks:

  • Marketing automation
  • Customer relationship management system
  • Project management system
  • Forms management
  • Email/Social media marketing
  • ERP
  • Customer support

The majority of these tools will either feed or pull data from your CMS.

For example, your blog post could include gated content or a lead magnet. This lead magnet connects to your lead acquisition tool, which connects to your marketing automation and email marketing tools. Once a lead is marked as qualified, it should be routed to your CRM. This is then integrated into your marketing automation tool to further nurture the leads.

This creates several dependencies that influence your CMS choice. The more tightly your CMS is integrated with your other marketing and sales tools, the smoother your marketing machinery will run.

#2 Business Impact

Tip: When considering the effects of a CMS on your business, you should consider the responsibilities you accept when choosing a platform.

With a development platform, you will either require internal resources to manage them or outsource the services required. When you build your website on these platforms, you have to go through a lot more steps in terms of functional requirements and development cycles to get to the final product.

The majority of the development is completed with a solutions platform, and your company will need to configure the platform to meet your specific needs. Adoption is also generally faster because these systems are designed to be user-friendly.

#3 Ongoing Requirements

The process of creating a website for your company can be difficult. Managing stakeholder expectations, ensuring you deliver on business requirements, and getting your vendor to deliver on their promises are just a few of the issues that arise during the process.

The build, however, should be considered the start of your digital journey. The hard work begins the day the website is launched and you now need to validate the assumptions you made many months prior during the discovery phase.

Tip: Integrated analytics serve as a springboard for your responses, A/B testing of content, and user journeys. This then leads to website updates, content changes, and the launch of landing pages for specific campaigns. Understanding how the CMS platform behaves when there is a need for continuous change should be part of the decision-making process.

#4 Security

Security is a major consideration. You need a CMS that will protect your content and customer data from current and future threats.

There are four things to think about here:

Security features: Does the CMS include built-in security features (for example, two-factor authentication)? If not, does it have security plugins and third-party integrations?
Infrastructure requirements include: Is the CMS in favor of infrastructure-level security upgrades?

Environment for plugins/modules: Are your most frequently used plugins/modules secure? Do their developers check for updates regularly?
Development speed: How quickly do developers release updates and security fixes? This is especially problematic with open-source software.

#5 WYSIWYG content creation

WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) user interfaces have become a standard feature of CMS platforms ranging from the most basic to the most sophisticated.

A WYSIWYG content authoring environment, as the name implies, allows marketers and non-technical users to create content using familiar formatting tools (such as those found in Microsoft Word).

Consider the following:

  • Can marketers use the editor to easily change the look and feel of content?
  • Does the editor support multiple delivery channels with previews of content?
  • Is the editor responsive and quick, or is it slow and difficult to use?
  • Does the editor allow you to embed video on product pages and other web pages to support your video content?

How to make the best choice 

Choosing a CMS is a difficult task. You must balance multiple requirements from various departments, evaluate dozens of options, and choose something that falls into the Goldilocks zone of cost, complexity, and ease of use.

Hopefully, this blog will assist you in making a more informed CMS decision.

Here are your next three actions to take before you leave:

  • Inquire with your marketing, editorial, sales, and IT departments about their CMS requirements.
  • Examine your current technology stack and skills concerning all stakeholders.
  • Estimate a budget and take into account the cost of implementation for both open and closed source solutions.

The flexibility and features they offer are out of the box, along with their content-first approach they are not too high up on the learning curve. All these features combined, make them our go-to for nearly every custom web project.

It is an essential component of our web design and development capabilities. Are you interested? Contact us, and we’ll be happy to discuss how they can improve your site.

About Galaxy Weblinks

We are your offshore CMS development partner and have state-of-art infrastructure and development expertise on the latest CMS technology trends. We have hands-on experience in end-to-end WordPress CMS development solutions catering to different business needs. We offer assistance from building custom CMS websites to website migration and maintenance processes.

7 Clever Ways to Boost Ecommerce Store Sales in 2021

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Increasing conversions and enhanced customer engagement is the primary goal of all Ecommerce businesses, both large and small. This leads to more sales. However, increasing sales and conversions is not a cakewalk. 

There are numerous ways to increase your online sales, many that can be implemented with an immediate effect. We have curated 7 such practices which will help you get more conversions and thereby, more sales swiftly. 

#1 Cross-selling is BIG in Ecommerce right now

It is a strategy for selling products that are related to the items that are already in the customer’s shopping cart. They may fall into a completely different product category! Did you know that using a cross-sell on the checkout page can increase conversions by up to 3%?

Cross-sell items should be at least 60% less expensive than the item added to the cart. If you offer your customer a complete package, such as a camera and batteries at a lower price, they will not hesitate to purchase both.

#2 Create a streamlined UI/UX

How simple is it for a typical user to interact with your store? A streamlined user experience and interface are critical for your website’s growth. Put product recommendations at the bottom, for example, and include “frequently bought together” options as well.

#3 Optimize newsletter sign-ups

Email newsletters are the go-to option for promotions in both B2B and B2C market space. Digital marketers understand the importance of email newsletters in shaping a brand’s tone and image. It is convenient to capture customer’s attention with the help of a simple newsletter sign-up popup.

#4 Offer a range of filters

Your existing customers have an understanding of your online storefront. The new browsers, however, need some guidance to navigate through your store. Consider them to be the online equivalent of window shoppers. 

This is where product filters come in handy. They help organize your products in a manner that enables visitors to easily pick and choose products based on their preferences.

#5 Enable guest checkout method

If you want to convert your customers into repeat buyers, instead of forcing them to create an account, offer them the option of checking out as a guest. Allowing for a guest checkout option could do wonders for your online business. 

Currently, many Ecommerce websites require a user to sign up for an account – and this may be doing more harm than good to your business because many website visitors do not have ample time to create accounts.

#6 Cover a Range of FAQs

Because you are not physically available to answer every other customer question, provide all of the information necessary for your customers to make a decision. Don’t overestimate your customers’ knowledge. Make as many arrangements as you can for them.

Be clear and transparent in your conversations and transactions with them, from Frequently Asked Questions to Return Policies, and from Shipping Dates to your Shipping Policies.

Put yourself in the shoes of a buyer and consider what questions they are likely to ask. Cover everything you can think of.

#7  Work on Improving Loading Times

KissMetrics report state that 47% of customers expect a web page to load in two seconds or less. A simple 1-second delay can result in a 7% decrease in conversion rate. 

You might be frustrated when a website you’re trying to access takes forever to load. If your website’s loading speed is slow, your visitors will likely feel the same way. Consider the following factors:

  • Optimize images
  • Optimize CSS delivery
  • Prioritize above-the-fold content
  • Reduce the number of plugins
  • Reduce redirects
  • Minimize HTTP requests
  • Reduce server response time
  • Enable compression
  • Enable browser caching
  • Minify resources

To sum up!

Although there are numerous other Ecommerce best practices that entrepreneurs should consider, incorporating these listed seven will not take much time and effort. We recommend evaluating your conversion rates regularly and making changes to your strategies as needed. Keep in mind that what works for one brand may not work for you. Simply continue to be unique, and your customers will reward you with the loyalty you seek.

We hope this practical piece curated from our experience in Ecommerce will help you drive sales. And if you want to interact with your customers in a whole new different way and enhance your conversion rate, contact our experts here.

3 Things To Know Before Switching To A New CMS

Posted on by galaxy-admin

When you’re planning a redesign of your website, there can be a lot of factors that led to this decision. It could be the need for additional features or utilities, performance, enhanced user experience, and so on. The changes in the user interface can be perhaps managed using your current CMS solutions. However, to integrate more features and functionalities, you may need to contemplate switching your CMS. 

For example, if you’re an Ecommerce portal and wish to incorporate additional graphical elements, your current CMS may be unable to accommodate this additional feature. Alternatively, you are updating the data on your portal manually and need to automate this process. The decision to redesign is a difficult one. You will encounter pretty many roadblocks while trying to update your current CMS. 

We have listed 3 points that you need to ponder on before you decide to go ahead and make a switch. 

1. Do you have a valid reason to switch?

Switching to a different CMS will bring in its own set of challenges. You will need to create the entire CMS from scratch, including the designs. You need to be sure when you’re switching systems. Here are some sustainable reasons why you would consider switching:

  • Current CMS won’t support the desired redesign
  • Current CMS has limitations that would or do require extensive custom development
  • Current CMS is too expensive, too slow, or suffers from other problems
  • Want to move from hosted platform to self-hosted
  • No CMS in use

If you don’t resonate with either of the reasons, we suggest you stick to your existing CMS and opt for superficial changes instead. On the other hand, if you did find yourself saying yay to almost each one of the reasons then follow us along. 

2. What are your options?

Now that you’ve made up your mind that you need to change systems, it’s time to find the right one for you. What are the options you ask? Let’s see:

Self-hosted

You can purchase or download self-hosted CMS and install it on a server you own or rent. Although complicated and steeper in the learning curve for beginners, self-hosted CMS is highly flexible and functional. Some of the popular choices are Magento, Drupal, Joomla, and Sitecore. 

Hosted

Typically, this kind of CMS is owned and hosted by the same company. These are very common for ecommerce platforms as these are simple to use and are essentially ready to plug and play.  Some popular choices for hosted CMSs are Shopify, BigCommerce, Volusion, and 3dcart. There is only one limitation with these hosted systems is that they are pretty difficult to modify according to your specifications.

WordPress

WordPress is like a household name. Initially introduced as blogging software, it now functions as a much more powerful system that enables users to host a blog, e-commerce, or a business website. With all the libraries of themes and plugins, the flexibility it provides is unmatched.

If you’re not sure which one fits your needs best you can outsource the WordPress development to CMS experts like us.

3. The process for switching to a new CMS

Now that you’ve selected your CMS, you will have to retain the data from the existing site, set up the server, and take care of the new design. Sounds like a lot, right? It’s a lot. Here is what you need to do: 

Exporting your data

You’ll have to backup your existing site data. You will have to work with databases, which is not easy, since it has user accounts, purchase history, report data, etc. Missing data can cost you dearly. 

Staging server

You’ll have to set up a test server so that you can ensure that nothing breaks in the live environment. 

New Design

Once the servers are ready and data is imported, the design will begin. Getting validation on design can take days, weeks, or even months. 

Review

This is the stage when you go through the final iterations of changes and see if you’re happy with the design and everything. Testing for different devices, browsers, and responsive will happen in this stage. 

Pro Tip: Take care of the redirects once the redesign is complete. You wouldn’t want your users lost in the web of 404s if your URLs are changed. You can find helpful information on creating 301 redirects in your .htaccess file on this Google Help page.

We know there’s a lot to do and there are so many things that can go wrong. Our experts can take care of the unknown for you and move your website to a new system without any downtime and other hassles. You can get in touch with us here.

4 Ways A UX Designer Helps You Deliver A Better Product Experience

Posted on by galaxy-admin

“User experience is everything that touches a product …more than just an app it’s the experience of the whole system around it.”

– Don Norman, who coined the term ‘User Experience’

When you enter your destination into a rideshare app or check your social media notifications, you’re interacting with a screen — but also, with user experience designers. 

Better known as UX designers, these technology professionals map out your experience long before you had it, structuring it to feel as natural and intuitive as possible. That’s their job: to craft easily navigable digital interfaces.

UX design roles vary greatly, and there are numerous UX design specializations available, such as information architecture and communication design. Every designer, especially on the smaller UX design teams, does a little bit of everything.

We have broken down UX design roles into roughly four components:

  • Researching
  • Ideating
  • Designing
  • Communicating

With this blog, we hope to make you understand how a UX designer can contribute to your business. Below are the ways UX designers can help your business, and how to spot a real one:

…

#1 Researching

A UX designer’s goal as a researcher is to truly understand a user’s needs, motivations, and empathize with them to improve or create a new product. The research responsibilities included everything from reviewing quantitative and qualitative survey results to conducting user testing.

User testing, also known as usability testing, entails learning about the user experience by simply observing how users complete key tasks within an app or platform. The process can reveal points of confusion in a more granular way than the interview. User testing frequently begins with defining testing objectives, identifying the key interfaces to investigate.


For example, a homepage or a profile page – and the key learning objectives for each interface. They then create the script. This is the standardized monologue that UX designers read before starting a user test to lay out the ground rules and introduce the task.

User interviews can also be used in user research. Aside from asking “What do you like about this product?”, they also ask users about their industry experiences to know what they want, which are not related to the products they’re researching.

How do they help your products with research?

-They make your product better by identifying problems you didn’t think existed by interviewing users and understanding their pain points when using your product, building a loyal user base and better product.

-They assist in visualizing how your product would solve niche problems before it is even launched, allowing you to pitch your story to investors more effectively by using storyboards to demonstrate how it would work and how it would solve core market problems.

#2 Ideating

Scheduling time for ideation is essential to the UX designer’s process — and the creative process in general. This is how the research findings are transformed into design concepts.

There are two stages to brainstorming. The first step is research analysis, during which designers zero in on specific user problems. This can be as simple as data science.

In some cases, UX designers divide a sample of users into categories or types and storyboard the typical user experience for each. Along the way, they identify common “pain points” for each type, such as a final “purchase” button that one type consistently misses.

After a UX designer has decided on a problem to tackle, the second stage of ideation begins – brainstorming. What are all of the possible solutions? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

This isn’t exactly “pulling ideas out of thin air.” To ensure consistency of user encounters, UX designers draw inspiration from wireframes for their brand’s other features. They also integrate UI/UX trends.

How do they help your products with ideating?

-They can suggest new features that generate revenue or solve problems, thereby increasing sales and users.

-They eliminate guesswork by appropriately grouping products or features using card sorting, reducing the need for users to search or believe that you do not offer that service, resulting in sales loss.

#3 Designing

A UX designer creates a rough draft of a concept during this phase. The level of fidelity, or faithfulness, with which they have been tasked determines their current state. A low-fidelity design is known as a wireframe, and a high-fidelity design is called a prototype. The former is more akin to a blueprint or outline of “the site’s structure.” The latter has some interactive features and fleshed-out visuals and is close to completion.

Typically, UX designers concentrate on wireframes. Designers typically employ software such as Axure, Invision, and Sketch. Wireframing is essentially the process of positioning logos, menus, and buttons on high-trafficked pages. In this stage, actual imagery is kept to a minimum.

Designers frequently look into the internal style guide while prototyping. This document specifies a brand’s appearance in terms of colors, spacing, and font, and its specifications can be quite detailed.

How do they help your products with designing?

-They ensure that your customers are not confused and leave your website by ensuring that layouts and interactions are consistent across other market websites or apps, thereby maintaining user familiarity with the product even if they switch from a competitor.

-They help in speed up signups and checkouts, resulting in lower user abandonment, while also making things intuitive, so people don’t have to think about what to do.

#4 Communicating

Wireframes and prototypes are frequently presented to key stakeholders, which can include internal teams and external clients.

Presentations are typically used to demonstrate how a new product will work and to justify changes. UX designers should ideally be able to trace features and formatting back to research and analysis.

Specifically for UX designers, “There is a lot of interaction with developers to ensure that your ideas can be implemented within their timeframe. They have a completely different set of priorities and obligations.”

UX designers sit down with the developers to give each other updates on their development progress and to provide each other feedback. One of the main purposes is also to make sure they’ve exported all their SVG’s properly into Zeplin, which is a tool UI/UX designers use to communicate with developers.

There they can fetch all the assets they need, from spacing to UI components, which makes me accountable for all the design decisions, and forces them to think as a pixel-perfect designer.

During these touchpoints, UX designers communicate their design decisions and the rationale behind it all.  Nothing is arbitrary in design. If your users understand the choices you’ve presented to them, your mapping of elements, and your interactions; then you are successful.

How do they help your products with communication/collaboration?

-They select the best approach by using wire-frames and prototyping to quickly test different decisions, avoiding the need to launch a product only to discover it’s a nightmare for you and your users, saving you a lot of money.

-They validate your product or their own decisions, by having actual data that shows why they did this and why it’s better, thus eliminating guesswork or any preconceived ideas.

Hopefully, you now have a good idea of what a UX designer has to deliver or communicate with stakeholders.

If you’re thinking ‘we do not have enough experience to deal with this or “what if I don’t have enough time”, contact us to get in touch with our UI/UX experts.

About Galaxy Weblinks

We specialize in delivering end-to-end software design & development services. Our UI/UX designers are creative problem-solvers with a decade of experience in all facets of digital and interactive design. We create compelling and human-focused experiences delivered through clean, and minimalist UI.

Optimize your Ecommerce Website for More Conversions

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Like all businesses, Ecommerce stores are also in the race of chasing numbers. They make efforts to increase the website traffic, thereby, to reach a satisfactory conversion rate mark. Website traffic also happens to be essential for your business to thrive. Unlike brick and mortar stores, ecommerce stores can take numerous initiatives to increase their website’s traffic, optimize performance, and boost sales.  

When we talk about boosting the conversion rate, we first need to understand the conversion funnel and how it works. Conversion funnel aka the Buying Cycle consists of three steps – 

  • Awareness:  It is when the customer becomes aware of the product and acknowledges the need for it.
  • Evaluation: It’s the next step, where the customer has recognized the need and is contemplating whether your products match their requirements. 
  • Purchase: This is the final step of the funnel! Here, the potential customer makes up their mind and finally makes a purchase.

Understanding the customer funnel will now help you define goals to meet your customer needs for every step of the cycle. With that in mind, the key focus should now be on evaluating the information and data you have gathered from the conversion funnel. 

  • Do your products match the needs of your customers?
  • Are your competitors providing a better buying experience?
  • How effortless is the customer’s journey from identifying the need to purchasing the product?

We recommend – 

  • Product copy should be concise and informative 
  • Website usability shouldn’t become a bottleneck as it has a major influence on the purchasing decision. 
  • Positioning of the primary action buttons like ‘Buy Now’ should be at the top of the visual hierarchy and not at the bottom. 

Optimizing the conversion rate

Analyzing your store for gaps and using the finding to boost sales is known as optimization. Generally in an analysis, various page elements are put under a lens to look for performance optimization possibilities. Some of those on-page elements that contribute to conversion are: 

  • Headlines
  • Descriptions
  • CTA button placement
  • CTA button color

One of those widely adopted conversion rate optimization techniques is A/B Testing. It lets you simultaneously test and analyzes different executions of the same page elements with live users. It saves time and validates ideas with the intended users. The results from tested variants are then compared to see which one yielded better results as far as conversions are concerned. 

Choosing the elements to optimize for conversion

We have a long list of tried and tested elements that are bound to aid in page performance significantly. Some of them are listed below to get you started. 

Informative Elements

  • High-quality photographs: It’s all about the first impressions. In a digital world where customers don’t get to touch, feel, or try the products they are buying, high-definition photographs come to the rescue. Poor or no pictures are the easiest way to drop-offs. Use multiple angles and provide hover to zoom for details.  
  • Product descriptions: Go into as much detail as possible when describing your product. Accurate and honest descriptions sell more products. Don’t toot your own horn, try to help the customer with your copy instead. 
  • Videos: Does the work of pictures, but better. Videos make you seem like you care about your customers enough to provide every possible detail to help them make an informed decision.  
  • Product reviews: Arguably the easiest and the most effective way to build customer trust. Try to engage and pro-actively ask for reviews but don’t be too intrusive. 
  • Site search: Optimize your search so that it improves your product’s visibility. Visibility can directly impact your conversion just as any other digital asset. 

Usability Elements

These elements are optimized to make the experience as easy and satisfactory as possible. 

  • Hyper personalization: Use customer shopping history to show the products they are interested in. This will filter the noise while also reducing the cognitive load and making the ‘Add to cart’ action instinctive. 
  • Mobile optimization: It’s no secret that most of your users like to shop on mobile. It’s the only reason you need and would want to focus on the mobile experience.  
  • Get Wish Lists: Also known as ‘Save for later’ or ‘Favorites’. This helps people curate a list of products that they want to remember and possibly buy at a later date. If they can easily access products they liked earlier, they are more likely to complete the transaction. 
  • Real time assistance: Integrate an option for people to opt for customer service assistance when needed in real-time. 

The Checkout

Cart abandonment is the real-life equivalent of a customer dropping your product on the shelf and stepping out of the store. Losing out on potential customers is heartbreaking, whether it’s in the real world or online. It’s majorly attributed to a poorly optimized checkout process. Poor or confusing design decisions for shopping carts could also be one of the contributing reasons for incomplete transactions. 

How to ensure guaranteed conversion?

  • Cut down the steps to checkout: Shave off any unnecessary steps to help your customers check out faster.
  • NO hidden prices: You wouldn’t want to shop at a store where the product page price differs from the checkout price. Keep pricing transparent as hidden prices are cited as one of the most common reasons for cart abandonment.  
  • Remind users of incomplete transactions: Even when you’re doing everything right, you will find that carts are still being abandoned. The reason can be as simple as your user being bad at multitasking. Just remind them in emails that the order is incomplete. 

When followed carefully, the results these optimization techniques yield is staggering. It might seem basic at first but consistent efforts compound and contribute to big impressive sales numbers. 

We hope this practical piece curated from our experience in ecommerce will help you drive sales. And if you need someone else to handle these optimizations for you while you cash in the benefits, contact us here.