Abipo Web Design Northern Ireland Blog

Improve your E-Commerce store’s credibility

2014/12/23/in eCommerce /by admin

Paying for items online these days needs to be fast, efficient and trust worthy. There are various elements that need to make the customer want to consider buying your product or services therefore it is important to get the basics right for everything to work together and make your business successful. To increase your ecommerce rates you need these various elements to keep the customers happy.

online shopping

Images

If you are selling a product you need to ensure that the image you provide of the product is only of the best quality that you can produce. People need to have an idea of what they are getting it is important that the product is shown in all its various angles; this helps you encourage the consumer to buy your product or service that will be provided.

Description

A description that will entice the customer to buy the product or service is essential. This will basically help you sell the product faster. One needs to provide enough information so the customer will not have any doubts or queries about the product. You should offer a long version describing the product in detail and a shorter version for those who are less interested but still interested. The shorter version needs to be more intriguing than the long version in order to get the possible customer to want to know more.

Allow Your Customers to Customise

The game ‘The Sims’ is arguably popular as you get to customise people and houses to your own liking. Customising is like a game for people; they feel as if they made it by choosing matching colours etc. By allowing people to customise it will end up costing them more money. If you want to make money I suggest you allow people to customise on your online store.

Offer Free Shipping

It is obviously going to make you product less appealing if a shipping cost is involved it is just a fact. People will do anything to save money as it is in human nature of course! It is crucial that you offer free shipping or at least include it in the price in order to allow your product to look more pleasing at attractive to the eye. If you do decide to rather charge for shipping, make sure the customer is aware of this as they might not want to use your services again if you are not an honest sales person.

Sales and More Sales

Naturally most people are drawn to sales, like I said before; any opportunity to save money is what any normal human will want. Many people actually look for sales and specials when visiting online stores. This may increase the amount of produce you sold. Be sure to work with your product and maybe when you have left over stock when you have new stock have a sale or special with new stock items.

Use a trusted e-commerce platform

People often tend to ignore using e-commerce platforms and instead opt for traditional PHP based store. This is a big mistake, e-commerce stores are different from your regular sites/blogs and need specific elements to ensure strong user engagement. Your store should have a seamless order flow which is not something smoothly accomplished via PHP. Reputed Ecommerce platforms like Shopify or Prestashop are specially designed to make your e-commerce store perfect. Browse Shopify themes online and select the one that best suits your need.

Improve your ecommerce with some of these simple steps and allow your business to slowly begin blossom.

6 steps to take when designing your logo

2014/10/27/in Web Design /by admin

The importance of a professional logo for a company, organisation, or product, cannot be overemphasised. Without a professional logo your brand may not get the recognition it deserves, as it will become difficult for your audience to visually harmonise facets of your business.

Here are 6 steps to take when designing your logo. Follow these and you will be more likely to create a logo that suits your brand.

Start with a sketch first

For most people new to logo design the most common first step is to jump straight onto the computer and start designing. This is generally a wrong approach, as this often leads to wasted time on special effects and filters, without getting to grips with the essence of the design.

The best thing to do is to get a sheet of paper and draw various logo design examples, keeping in mind what you want the logo to communicate to your audience.

Use vector-specific drawing software

Photoshop, paint shop pro and pixelmator, and painter, are all great tools used by people working with images, but, according to Steve, digital marketing manager at Print-print.co.uk, “while these tools are very good for photo editing, they won’t do the best job when it comes to logo design”. Steve suggests that you “use vector-specific drawing software like Adobe Illustrator, free hand and line form for the best results. Whether enlarging for print posters or shrinking for web content vectors ensure the clarity of the logo is maintained”.

Choosing the right colour scheme

When you get to the point where you are using fill and stroke colours, you will need to use colour combinations that are sensible for your business. If you run an investment firm for instance, it won’t be wise for you to use bright red and pink as the colour scheme. Think about colour psychology and ensure you create the right feeling with the colours that you choose.

Consider the black and white version

After you have settled for a colour scheme for your logo, the next step you have to take is to have a look at what the logo will look like when it goes through a fax or copier machine, or is put in a black and white newspaper ad. There are some really nice black and white logo examples here on Pinterest

You can print and copy the logo to see how it looks. If it doesn’t look coherent, get back on your computer and rework the original version, or develop a second version. You may need to convert hollow shapes to solid shapes, and vice versa. The logo may have to be tweaked a bit, but make sure you don’t deviate too much from your original design.

Consider your target audience

As you develop a logo, you need to keep in mind your target audience. If the logo is purely for a website, you are free to use special effects, colour fades etc. If the logo is, however, meant for commercial printing, the complexity of the logo must be considered, bearing in mind the printing challenges and expenses that comes with lots of colours and effects.

A good idea may be to create a web based version and print version of your logo. Steve at Print Print has this to say on the subject. “In the printing world, colours are referred to as “spot” colour and the more colours used, the more expensive it will be to do the printing”.

Take a look at the typography

A logo isn’t all about images; the typography is very important. The words of the logo are just as important as any graphics you may come up with. Many new logo designers pay far too little attention to the fonts, jumping straight in with a font they know and love. Your lettering style, fonts and case in a logo can have big impact on the quality of your logo. You should also think about how your font choices here impact on your overall typographical strategy.

An important tip here is to convert letters to shapes and outlines if your logo uses a font. This will ensure that when you send the vector file to someone, there won’t need to have your font installed on their computers to view it properly.

To create a professional logo you should take a process approach to the design. If you go about it the right way you will be far more likely to get an outcome that works, and that you love.

The rise of online security concerns

2014/09/18/in Security, Web Design /by admin

By Google (Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons.) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

As the wealth of activities offered by the internet continues to grow every day, so too do modern online security concerns. The recent security scare at Gmail only served to highlight the fragility of today’s modern measures – more than 4.5 million users of the popular email service had no choice but to change their passwords after a database containing personal details was exposed on an internet site.

Account details and passwords on cryptocurrency Bitcoin Security were leaked. Other services offered by Google including file sharing platform Google Drive and mobile payment system Google Wallet were also revealed on social networking site Reddit.

Google has since reassured its customers that a password change will rectify any problems, but the scare has proven that all website hosts need to take extra measures to ensure they stay safe. This is a grave concern for those who are launching their own website for the first time, in particular hosts of e-commerce sites which require secure payment systems.

One type of e-commerce site that has risen in popularity in recent years and as such has to address these concerns is the online casino industry. Figures show that online gambling, despite worldwide legislation, has more than doubled in revenue since 2005, forcing web hosts to address their online security measures.

Affiliate marketing has been instrumental in addressing these concerns, particularly for customers. While there are millions of sites out there aimed at taking advantage of misinformed customers, today’s modern affiliate sites help direct customers to reputable gaming sites where payment security is a top priority.

But there are other measures that new website hosts can take in order to guarantee peace of mind for themselves and their customers. Keeping software up-to-date is imperative to protect your website from hackers – even if it is just a simple WordPress update, about which users will be reminded via the ‘Dashboard’ function – it can be instrumental in keeping a website safe.

Moreover, new website hosts should be aware of what information they are revealing to new customers. For example, if a user forgets his or her password, the error message should not give too much away.

File uploads are also a tricky subject when it comes to blocking out hackers – it is important that administrators keep an eye out for fake file extensions, even if it is for something as simple as a change of avatar.

While undoubtedly the biggest online security concern today is that of payment security, no new website host should start building without taking these tips into consideration.

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