eCommerce on Drupal for Higher Revenue

The potential for access to customers and high profitability are what drives ecommerce on the web. But with ecommerce comes a special set of needs and responsibilities. These can be managed quite effectively by utilizing the right Drupal ecommerce tools as you develop your Drupal design. In most cases, getting Drupal ecommerce right leans seeking the help of experts—Drupal experts.

Better Drupal Design With The Experts

One of the things that has a large bearing on the success of any ecommerce site—whether based in Drupal design or not—is the clarity and functionality of the website. In this aspect the success of any given ecommerce website relies heavily on the design of the website itself. A profitable business website needs to be

• Attractive and inviting, visually speaking

• Unique and cutting edge, offering the visitor something much better than average

• Utterly clear and simple in use, while still fulfilling the visitor’s needs for attractiveness, information, and functionality

• Friendly to search engines so that it also can be ranked and found

• Secure

Successful ecommerce sites give all the elements the visitor needs them to in order to convert hits to sales. But achieving all of these things and finding a way to package them nicely—and still maintain that high level of function that visitors need to complete the sale is an awful tall order. It takes a very talented and knowledgeable Drupal developer to cohesively design a profitable Drupal ecommerce site.

Your Drupal Designer—Your Key To Profitable Drupal Ecommerce

The core Drupal installation is not designed to fulfill the needs of Drupal ecommerce sites. For that, added functionality must be used. This means selecting and applying the right Drupal modules and customizing them to suit your site’s needs.

If you look at the available modules that can be used with the core Drupal application, you’ll see that there are more than 3300 modules available for use and website development. How, then, can you know what to choose and which applications are best suited for your particular flavor of ecommerce?

The only real way to be sure is to work with an expert Drupal designer who is familiar with the system, and capable of customizing the system by modifying the source application and its modules. And of course, it is imperative that that professional be able to do so without compromising the safety and security of your crucial information, or that of the visitors who are relying on you to protect them.

Drupal ecommerce adds a whole new dimension to Drupal design. As important as the safety, security, functionality and performance of Drupal ecommerce sites are, it is imperative to make sure that you work with Drupal experts who can deliver the product that will be all that you need it to be and more. Choosing Drupal designers carefully takes on a whole new level of importance when you enter into the realm of Drupal ecommerce. Do be sure that the designers and experts you choose have the knowledge, experience, and credentials behind them to deliver.

Original Author of this Article is S. Reeves Morris

6 ways e-commerce survived the recession

According to Forrester's recent findings, successful Web retailers exhibited at least one of the following six deliberate efforts to drive growth despite the challenges of the past year.

Reset goals as needed. E-commerce has to focus on more than just the single sale. Unlike bricks-and-mortar outlets, customers can "leave" with a single click of a browser button. Therefore, customer service has played a crucial role in differentiating online retailers. Providing a successful customer experience requires more than merely making products available online. Online retailers must also focus on details such as site usability that will continue to deliver on the value proposition.

Redefine the competition. Competing on price can only go so far. The online channel allows retailers to introduce new products and address new customers in ways that would be expensive and difficult through other channels. Clothing retailer American Eagle, for example -- which has a presence both on- and offline -- also owns the 77Kids brand which sells children's clothing exclusively online.

Respect the technology department. Rarely do companies think about the technology team that builds and maintains the e-commerce systems. Technology is critical to enabling the features that give online retail its advantage over the bricks-and-mortar experience, such as rich Internet and mobile applications and purchasing without having to provide credit-card information. According to Mulpuru, Web retailers spend 7 percent of revenue on technology. In the overall retail sector, that figure is 2 percent; in all other industries, 3 percent.

Reinforce partner relationships. Consumers love their brands -- and are more likely to be loyal when they do. In fact, Mulpuru reported that roughly a third of e-commerce spend is generated or driven by manufacturer and brand Web sites. However, competition between branded and private-label goods often complicates retail's ability to collaborate with partners.

React well to the people power. Social media connects consumers to each other, but also enables them to communicate directly with companies. Mulpuru told the audience that she sees retailers generating blogs, forming microcommunities, and joining social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, but admits there are a wide range of driving forces behind retailers' efforts:

• 66 percent say return on social marketing intiatives is unclear.
• 50 percent are pursuing social media because of industry buzz.
• 34 percent report social marketing strategies have in fact helped them grow their business.

While many retailers claim social media represents a long-term strategy for customer engagement, there are companies seeing substantial short-term returns: Eventbrite, an online provider of event-registration services, claims social media generates the highest source of revenue after online search.

Recognize the mobility revolution. Retailers, Mulpuru said, should "like social, but love mobile." She emphasized that the statement didn't necessarily require an increase in spending on mobile initiatives, but that mobile will be critical to creating the ultimate multichannel experience. "More people will access…sites through mobile," she said, citing one product platform that was recession-proof in the last year: Apple's iPhone. Retailers who hopped onto the application platform early, she said, saw immediate advantages -- but she noted that the iPhone isn't the only mobile application consumers are using, nor is it the most popular. Other devices, in order of popularity, include:

• Blackberry;
• LG;
• Motorola;
• Apple;
• Samsung;
• operator brand;
• multiple brands;
• Nokia; and
• Palm.

Mulpuru did not disparage the more-traditional digital channels, but noted that while email marketing "still works," it's "not the future." According to research from Forrester, email is used by a larger share of people over the age of 65 than within the 18-to-29 age bracket (67 percent versus 65 percent). Nevertheless, she said, as a marketing strategy email remains substantially more effective than social media:

• Social media marketing sees an average of .04 percent clickthrough rate among the 65 million active social network users in the United States.
• The 166 million active users of email produce a 22 percent open rate on marketing emails.

In closing, Mulpuru recommended retailers implement two strategies immediately:

• Introduce alternative payments to the mobile site to increase consumer confidence and simplify the shopping experience; and
• improve site legibility on mobile devices. This initiative may be complex given the variations in carriers and devices, but Web-accessibility specialists can help manage the migration from Web to mobile.

In another sign of the shifting technological landscape, the conference unofficially began the day before with an all-day Bootcamp, in which roughly 250 attendees covered topics from social media to analytics to email marketing.

What is your Reinvention?

Over the past several years, Ecommerce has become a natural means for shopping.
Whether you are looking for products related to entertainment, household needs, or technology, shopping via the Internet is now the way to go. Ecommerce, as this has come to be called, has enable businesses to offer their wide ranges of products and services to a mass of people across the globe. Because of this, it is no longer necessary to travel to another country to purchase products from its stores. ( from ezinearticles.com)

The process of Ecommerce is really quite simple, although the details can be rather complicated, depending on the specifications and needs of each individual company.

While everyone is not jumping onto the Ecommerce bandwagon, it has been found that many people are looking at it as a more convenient and viable option. It allows for fast shopping without ever leaving the comforts of the home, and makes a wider range of products and services more readily available, and certainly more easily attainable than ever before.

This is one of the main reasons that Ecommerce isn't going away any time soon.

Reinventing  E commerce to re-imagine, re-think and re-brand..

~ Identify our passion. What have we always dreamed of doing?

~ Take a "Break", as professionals calls it. Take some time to explore an interesting field. His Vocation Vacation "program connects career transitioners with mentors working in the exact job they want, so they can test drive the job of their dreams."

~ Find a mentor. Select someone who can give us a guided tour of a field that we are intrigued by.

How about an example. Say you always dreamed of owning your auction website like ebay Online because you have long had a passion for running your own little business on the internet. Specialist would ask you to go online. Stay awhile exploring each and every part of ebay" to find out the inner workings; find out what it really takes to run a Auction website.

You'll come away with some rich data for making your decision about whether to move ahead, or move on to another possibility.

If you are seeking a roadmap to career reinvention, there are several steps to follow, including:

1. First, identify your strengths.
2. Ask yourself, what is the worst that could happen?
3. Set a goal and a plan
4. Find a mentor.
5. Test-drive the career option.
6. Network. Network. Network.

Finally, we recommend some soul-searching: "What are our passions and interests? What activities give us a sense of purpose and satisfaction? The first step in any new transition is the opportunity to explore, experiment and discover our “great invention” and what we can do to pursue it."

What is your "great invention?"