Kabir’s Blogs

The Reasons For Needing a Wholesale Website
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The Reasons For Needing a Wholesale Website

The Reasons For Needing a Wholesale Website

The Reasons For Needing a Wholesale Website

When creators are in the early progress of their wholesale adventure, structural issues can feel daunting. The creators that are worked with may become stuck on anything from how to brand and package their product lines, to reaching wholesale minimums. These operational and logistical elements can rather challenging to iron-out.

What is a wholesale website?

A wholesale website is either a connected or separate online store to your own website, that allows potential customers in retail to purchase or look at various wholesale products. It might even be somewhat of a clone of your retail shop, but where it differs is in quantities and pricing. Wholesale sites can be structured in different ways, depending on the goals and needs you may set in place.

 

Pros and cons of a wholesale website

When done correctly, a wholesale site can be better than alternative methods in multiple ways. An example of this is simplifying the ordering process for store owners. It allows you to change and update products, pricing and descriptions far more easily than with a document-based method such as a line sheet. It’s easier to keep branding consistent across wholesale, retail and other online-based pieces of your business presence.

This being said, wholesale websites do contain some disadvantages, it can be costly in money and time to build a wholesale website, especially in a way that is on-brand. Also some creators veer into an avenue that feels average if they don’t find a way to intertwine their story into their website.

 

You should consider creating a wholesale website if:

  • You don’t have a sufficient method of taking wholesale orders currently.
  • You’re only reaching out to independent retailers as a primary piece of your wholesale expansion

 

You probably don’t need a wholesale website if:

  • Your focus is fully on trade shows for your growth.
  • You’ve recently invested heavily in a great line sheet.

 

Considering creating a wholesale shop?

Here’s what Emily from Wholesale In a Box says is crucial:

  • Don’t make the store owner log in to see your wholesale products. It can be wise to have a login, but not if the only way for a store owner to see your wholesale offering is by creating an account/login.
  • Consider “out of the box” options. While a separate wholesale site can be great, another option is to have store owners shop on your regular website but with a coupon code that gives them the wholesale price.

And here’s what Aeolidia recommends for getting your wholesale website’s design and branding right:

  • Create a slightly different version of your logo or header graphics for the wholesale site so that it is easy for customers to tell which website they are on. This could be as simple as the addition of a “wholesale shop” tagline.
  • Decide what is most important for wholesale customers to know about your business and adjust your content to match. This may mean making changes to your home page, adding informational pages specifically for wholesale customers, etc.

You don’t need to rush into it, starting to plan your wholesale shop can be a smart way of investing in your wholesale expansion. It’s absolutely fine if the timing is not right for your your business. These dynamics are something you can keep in mind when laying down the foundations at an early stage.

The Demise of Microsoft Internet Explorer
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The Demise of Microsoft Internet Explorer

The Demise of Microsoft Internet Explorer

 

Back in August 2020, Microsoft announced that Internet Explorer would be becoming obsolete towards the end of 2021. For 2 decades, Windows users have been using this as their default browser, which has seen a transition to Microsoft Edge since Microsoft released Windows 10. Microsoft decided in 2019 that it wouldn’t be creating it’s own bespoke browser from now-on and as a result, they have switched to a Chromium browser-based version of Microsoft Edge. This became available to users in the latest Fall 2020 update for Windows 10.

The Demise of Microsoft Internet Explorer

Microsoft’s Reasoning

In Microsoft’s own words, this is what they had to say about the reasoning behind the discontinuation of their browser:

“Customers have been using IE 11 since 2013 when the online environment was much less sophisticated than the landscape today. Since then, open web standards and newer browsers—like the new Microsoft Edge—have enabled better, more innovative online experiences.”

The browser itself had been left-behind compared to other browsers. Not catering towards responsive website designs or newer web technologies such as React.js and CSS-grid.

Alternative Browsers

Here are alternatives browsers that are available on mobile operating systems as well as desktop operating systems:

  • Google Chrome
  • Mozilla Firefox
  • Apple Safari
  • Opera
  • Microsoft Edge

These browsers are all up-to-date and available free-to-use. The exception is that Apple’s Safari browser is only available for iOS and Mac devices. They incorporate modern web-technologies as well as being cross-platform. Google Chrome is the most-used browser nowadays and Google have the dominant mobile platform. Something Microsoft also tried to have their hand in but ultimately lost due to having virtually no market-share and being dominated by both Google and Apple.

Impact to web browsing

As Internet Explorer becomes obsolete. This will have an adverse affect on both business and consumers-alike. People aren’t open to change, especially after using the same browser for decades. Businesses may find difficulty in having their employees switching browsers due to having to deploy the same system image that won’t contain the legacy browser. It may result in costing money to train employees in how to use the new browser-of-choice due to how browsers different in layout from one another.

Consumers, especially the older generation may find it difficult due to having a “turn it on and use what’s there” mindset as that’s the most simple and easy thing to do. This should be something Microsoft should get users ready-for in terms of the transition, as the Windows 8 operating system was deemed a failure due to changing the fundamental functionality, which resulted in consumers becoming aggravated towards using their operating system. This resulted in Microsoft making Windows 10 more-like Windows 7.

With the migration to a new browser, Microsoft should be able to provide videos outlining what’s new in Edge and how to use it. They even decided to put a “legacy mode” baked-into the browser as an option in order to view older-websites properly.

Overall, this will have a positive impact on web-browsing as users will be able to adapt from one browser to another, resulting in a better user experience whilst browsing overall.

CSS issues when viewing websites in Internet Explorer

There are limitations within Internet Explorer and as a result, many sophisticated websites do not display correctly. Here are some issues that Microsoft have outlined:

  • All style tags after the first 31 style tags are not applied.
  • All style rules after the first 4,095 rules are not applied.
  • On pages that use the @import rule to continuously import external style sheets that import other style sheets, style sheets that are more than three levels deep are ignored.

As a result of the above, styling would be non-existent on most modern websites and result in malformed webpages. This also applies to responsive websites, as responsiveness is very limited within Internet Explorer.

Conclusion

Due to the above mentioned reasons, it is best not to use Internet Explorer going-forward. Since Microsoft themselves have moved-on. It is highly recommended that users find an alternative browser that adheres to current web standards and is easy to use and access across multiple devices.

10 WordPress Trends To Watch Out For In 2021

10 WordPress Trends To Watch Out For In 2021

10 WordPress Trends To Watch Out For In 2021

After its creation in 2003, WordPress has had a vast amount of improvements. Upgrades, security and new additions, as well as the endless-growing amount of plug-ins and tools that are available for free. With the end of 2020 having come to a close, you may be curious as to what 2021 has in store for Wordpress users. Below are a number of trends being implemented, which you can use to make sure that your website is ahead of the competition.

A Focus On Accessibility

The importance of website and app accessibility for people with disabilities has come to the fore in 2020, and this trend is predicted to continue in 2021. Smart speakers with voice capabilities have dramatically improved access to online content, as has captioned media, simplified navigation, and increasingly accurate voice search technology. With the world relying more and more on the Internet and connected devices for work, school, entertainment, commerce, and social connections, the importance of maintaining and improving accessibility for people with disabilities is more profound now than ever before.

Video Backgrounds

As opposed to sliders and static images, an alternative to these methods are video background. This has been shown to increase the length of the average website session length, whilst also decreasing bounce rates. Video backgrounds are less resource-intensive as you may expect, as they tend to use compressed GIFs. In relation to this, video backgrounds are predicted to increase in usage in 2021 and beyond.

Minimalistic Themes

Themes with minimalistic design offer plenty of white space and flat graphics along with uncluttered navigation. Usability and mobile-friendliness are a focus with minimalistic themes, which have been popular throughout 2020 and are predicted to become the standard design method for 2021 and beyond.

Enhancements In E-Commerce

E-commerce has gone from browsing at the weekend to an essential in life during the year of 2020. With the event of global lockdowns, a dramatic rise in the necessity to do schooling and work from home, e-commerce has risen exponentially in 2020. Worldwide postage systems have been struggling with the demand and necessity of package deliveries, with the e-commerce boom showing now signs of slowing down. With electronic payment systems becoming increasingly used and improved in 2021 too.

Chatbots

Digital assistants and chatbots are becoming increasingly favored by companies, whether large or small as they offer 24-hour instant responses to questions. This allows customers to be heard and have their queries answered in real-time, without the need to spend a lot on training and hiring customer service assistants, chatbots have the ability to handle simultaneous requests at once. They can be refined and updates as new query types become asked more and more.

Thumb Scrolling Friendly Mobile User Experience

WordPress themes for mobile have been in high demand for many years and 2021 is predicted to become the year of thumb-scrolling friendly designs. This refers to the way that the majority of people tend to hold their mobile device. To optimize for this kind of movement, mobile wordpress themes have implemented a number of features including positioning icons towards the center of the screen as well as highly visible menu bars with the ability to reach with both thumbs in mind.

Conclusion

Premium WordPress themes will continue to separate professional and amateur ones from one another. Having an idea of what trends are becoming more and more used in 2021, you have the ability to be ahead of the competition and ensure that your website is ahead of the competition. Speak to a professional website design company in Manchester.

Top Digital Marketing Trends for 2020
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Top Digital Marketing Trends for 2020

Top Digital Marketing Trends for 2020

Here are some Digital Marketing trends that are quickly becoming the most-used throughout 2020!

Top Digital Marketing Trends for 2020

 

Artificial Intelligence

AI is dominating technology these days and is being used to take marketing to the next level. It can be used to analyze behaviour and search patterns, and even use data from social media platforms as well as blog posts to help businesses understand how consumers and customers find their products and services.

An exciting use for AI in practice is chatbots, these can be used to assist people with finding products and information. Relieving the stress on human workloads, who are still on standby if someone needs in-depth assistance if needed. Examples of companies using chatbots have been Amazon Customer Service as well as MasterCard within Facebook Messenger, in order to assist customers with purchases, queries and many other issues.

Conversational Marketing

This type of marketing involves a one-to-one, real-time connection between marketers and customers. Unlike standard strategies, this version of marketing is now available across multiple platforms, allowing brands to meet customers on their terms: on the devices, platforms and time schedules that suit the customer best.

The main  goal of conversational marketing is to enhance the user experience through a feedback-driven model that allows for higher engagement and greater loyalty with customers and users.

Programmatic Marketing

This type of advertising uses AI to automate the buying of ads, so you can target specific audiences. Bidding in real-time is an example of programmatic ad-buying. This method is far more effective and fast, which allows for higher conversions and lower costs in terms of customer acquisition.

Video Marketing

This video marketing method is one of the most effective and important marketing trends of today, if not for the next 5 to 10 years! The numbers below show the importance of implementing video into a digital marketing strategy in 2020:

  • 70% of consumers say that they have shared a brand’s video
  • 72% of businesses say that video has improved their conversion rate
  • 52% of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in online purchase decisions6
  • 65% of executives visit the marketer’s website and 39% call a vendor after viewing a video

There are many ways to drive higher user-engagement with video marketing, since you’re able to make a video post or start a live broadcast using Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

If a website includes a video, it is 50 times more likely to drive organic search results compared to text. This is because people find video content more compelling. As a result, Google and other search engines push pages that include videos higher in the search rankings.

Influencer Marketing

This form of marketing uses word-of-mouth that focuses on using key people with a vastly large following to amplify a brand’s message to a larger market. Influencers can be well-known celebrities, as well as Instagram, Twitter or YouTube personalities with a huge niche following, who can then help spread the word about a business or product through their respective social media platforms.

Influencer marketing is also going to be affected by artificial intelligence. With each year, AI is making the process of searching for fitting influencers to partner with much easier and faster. Algorithms are automating and cutting down the process, allowing for quicker and higher marketing revenue overall, reducing the cost in the amount of workforce needed too.

Conclusion

Digital marketing as a whole has become vastly improved throughout 2020, with the use of technology, influencers, artificial intelligence and the constant output of products of all categories, it will only become even more widely-used and ever-expanding throughout the years to come!

For an updated list, please read our blog on the digital marketing trends for 2022.

Why Should an Agency switch to Facebook Business Manager?
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Why Should an Agency switch to Facebook Business Manager?

Why Should an Agency switch to Facebook Business Manager?

Facebook has implemented a way for agencies to access a client’s Page, without the need for personal accounts to be linked as administrators. As Facebook themselves define the feature:

“Business Manager serves as a one-stop-shop to manage business tools, business assets, and employee access to these assets.”

Why Should an Agency switch to Facebook Business Manager?

 

By using the manager, an agency gets unrestricted access to Pages via the Business Manager. In doing so, you’re able to post to different accounts, customize each individual business page, as well as having the ability to link to third-party applications.

This results in being a benefit for both clients and agencies. The client’s social media pages are protected from other employees who may misuse the Business’s Page and the employees of the organization are able to have their work and personal Pages completely separate from one another.

 

Ad Accounts

In addition to Business Pages, Facebook’s Manager also allows an agency to manage ad-accounts via a centralized dashboard. If an agency is managing ad-campaigns for various clients, It can easily be managed by linking the client’s Ad-Account to the Business Manager.

This allows you to create ads, manage budgets and many more features!

Analytics

Facebook Manager also has analytical tools that allow an agency to monitor the Business’s page activity and decide on how to change or re-direct an in-progress ad campaign in order to gain more traction.

Collaboration

It is also easier to collaborate between members within an Agency too. Allowing all members to access the same information and focus on creating content for different Businesses simultaneously. Creating a complete combination of goals that an Agency needs to achieve for each business and executing it in a single-place in order for the whole Agency to come together and achieve all the goals set out!

Scalability

It is a scalable platform, so no matter how small or large a client’s business may be, it is a Manager that can be used for a variety of clients. 

Security

In terms of security, Facebook Business Manager provides Agencies with two-factor authentication, thus thwarting malicious attempts to gain access to the Business Manager as a whole. It also provides a business level of reporting to multiple accounts as well. Customized management reports/dashboards are accessible to clients too.

Multiple Accounts

With a variety of people within an Agency. It is possible to add, remove and manage each employee that accesses the Business Manager. In additional to this Logins and Roles can be assigned to individuals via the Dashboard securely.

Monitoring of who can access which data and permissions can be modified per individual too. Specific features can also be added for clients on a per-Business Page basis.

Targeting

Facebook Business Manager allows the ability to create custom audiences for differing ad-campaigns. Parallel ads can be created, which can be A/B tested, having the ability to split the ads between customers and find out which campaign may perform better and then allow for switching the complete campaign to the more-successful campaign overall.

Conclusion

As a whole, there are a plethora of reasons to use Facebook Business Manager for an Agency. The overall question to answer is, what is stopping you from using it already? It is easily implementable and easily usable!

Why Should an Agency switch to Facebook Business Manager?

Facebook has implemented a way for agencies to access a client’s Page, without the need for personal accounts to be linked as administrators. As Facebook themselves define the feature:

“Business Manager serves as a one-stop-shop to manage business tools, business assets, and employee access to these assets.”

Why Should an Agency switch to Facebook Business Manager?

 

By using the manager, an agency gets unrestricted access to Pages via the Business Manager. In doing so, you’re able to post to different accounts, customize each individual business page, as well as having the ability to link to third-party applications.

This results in being a benefit for both clients and agencies. The client’s social media pages are protected from other employees who may misuse the Business’s Page and the employees of the organization are able to have their work and personal Pages completely separate from one another.

 

Ad Accounts

In addition to Business Pages, Facebook’s Manager also allows an agency to manage ad-accounts via a centralized dashboard. If an agency is managing ad-campaigns for various clients, It can easily be managed by linking the client’s Ad-Account to the Business Manager.

This allows you to create ads, manage budgets and many more features!

Analytics

Facebook Manager also has analytical tools that allow an agency to monitor the Business’s page activity and decide on how to change or re-direct an in-progress ad campaign in order to gain more traction.

Collaboration

It is also easier to collaborate between members within an Agency too. Allowing all members to access the same information and focus on creating content for different Businesses simultaneously. Creating a complete combination of goals that an Agency needs to achieve for each business and executing it in a single-place in order for the whole Agency to come together and achieve all the goals set out!

Scalability

It is a scalable platform, so no matter how small or large a client’s business may be, it is a Manager that can be used for a variety of clients. 

Security

In terms of security, Facebook Business Manager provides Agencies with two-factor authentication, thus thwarting malicious attempts to gain access to the Business Manager as a whole. It also provides a business level of reporting to multiple accounts as well. Customized management reports/dashboards are accessible to clients too.

Multiple Accounts

With a variety of people within an Agency. It is possible to add, remove and manage each employee that accesses the Business Manager. In additional to this Logins and Roles can be assigned to individuals via the Dashboard securely.

Monitoring of who can access which data and permissions can be modified per individual too. Specific features can also be added for clients on a per-Business Page basis.

Targeting

Facebook Business Manager allows the ability to create custom audiences for differing ad-campaigns. Parallel ads can be created, which can be A/B tested, having the ability to split the ads between customers and find out which campaign may perform better and then allow for switching the complete campaign to the more-successful campaign overall.

Conclusion

As a whole, there are a plethora of reasons to use Facebook Business Manager for an Agency. The overall question to answer is, what is stopping you from using it already? It is easily implementable and easily usable!

Why Should an Agency switch to Facebook Business Manager?

Facebook has implemented a way for agencies to access a client’s Page, without the need for personal accounts to be linked as administrators. As Facebook themselves define the feature:

“Business Manager serves as a one-stop-shop to manage business tools, business assets, and employee access to these assets.”

Why Should an Agency switch to Facebook Business Manager?

 

By using the manager, an agency gets unrestricted access to Pages via the Business Manager. In doing so, you’re able to post to different accounts, customize each individual business page, as well as having the ability to link to third-party applications.

This results in being a benefit for both clients and agencies. The client’s social media pages are protected from other employees who may misuse the Business’s Page and the employees of the organization are able to have their work and personal Pages completely separate from one another.

 

Ad Accounts

In addition to Business Pages, Facebook’s Manager also allows an agency to manage ad-accounts via a centralized dashboard. If an agency is managing ad-campaigns for various clients, It can easily be managed by linking the client’s Ad-Account to the Business Manager.

This allows you to create ads, manage budgets and many more features!

Analytics

Facebook Manager also has analytical tools that allow an agency to monitor the Business’s page activity and decide on how to change or re-direct an in-progress ad campaign in order to gain more traction.

Collaboration

It is also easier to collaborate between members within an Agency too. Allowing all members to access the same information and focus on creating content for different Businesses simultaneously. Creating a complete combination of goals that an Agency needs to achieve for each business and executing it in a single-place in order for the whole Agency to come together and achieve all the goals set out!

Scalability

It is a scalable platform, so no matter how small or large a client’s business may be, it is a Manager that can be used for a variety of clients. 

Security

In terms of security, Facebook Business Manager provides Agencies with two-factor authentication, thus thwarting malicious attempts to gain access to the Business Manager as a whole. It also provides a business level of reporting to multiple accounts as well. Customized management reports/dashboards are accessible to clients too.

Multiple Accounts

With a variety of people within an Agency. It is possible to add, remove and manage each employee that accesses the Business Manager. In additional to this Logins and Roles can be assigned to individuals via the Dashboard securely.

Monitoring of who can access which data and permissions can be modified per individual too. Specific features can also be added for clients on a per-Business Page basis.

Targeting

Facebook Business Manager allows the ability to create custom audiences for differing ad-campaigns. Parallel ads can be created, which can be A/B tested, having the ability to split the ads between customers and find out which campaign may perform better and then allow for switching the complete campaign to the more-successful campaign overall.

Conclusion

As a whole, there are a plethora of reasons to use Facebook Business Manager for an Agency. The overall question to answer is, what is stopping you from using it already? It is easily implementable and easily usable!

Preparing your Marketing for Christmas 2020

Preparing your Marketing for Christmas 2020

Preparing your Marketing for Christmas 2020

Here are some Marketing tips to help you get ready for Christmas 2020!

Preparing your Marketing for Christmas 2020

Update your information

Social media has become a main point of call for people to find information about businesses, most importantly opening times. The Christmas period brings a change from the norm, with many businesses having different opening and closing times during the Festive season.

Make sure that only the Christmas opening times are displayed clearly on your company website’s “About” and “Contact” pages. Due to limited space on Twitter and Instagram bios, it may be worth adding or changing the links to lead to a specific blog post showing the hours for the Festive opening hours. A clear URL should be used to make it obvious for customers, an example: ‘www.yourcompany.com/christmas-opening-times’.

To make sure this information isn’t missed, you could go as far as sharing posts across all platforms with the hours on as well.

Implementing Real-Time

Social media and social networking have added features where short real-time interactive videos or photos can be uploaded and viewed for upto 24 hours, until they disappear. Tiktok, Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram all have their own variations of a “Stories” feature on their respective platforms. Having the content available for only a limited time period allows for the videos or photos to feel current and immersive, allowing for customers, consumers and followers to feel they’re up-to-date in near real-time with the company or brand.

Companies are able to use this feature to give their viewers a look into what the company is doing for the Festive Season. From showing off decorations, special dishes that are being created for Christmas Menus or perhaps even products that are being released exclusively for only the Christmas period. By doing this, it will allow followers, consumers and customers to become enveloped in the magic of the Festive Period and be more-engaged and build anticipation for the run-up to Christmas!

Competitions

Providing competitions can generate a vast amount of interest and engagement on a variety of social media platforms. This could even attract consumers and followers whose sole purpose is to just join the competition, this still allows for turning social media posts into word-of-mouth which in-turn allows for even more engagement overall. As a result, it is definitely worth considering running multiple competitions throughout the Christmas season.

One variation would be to have a Caption Competition, this is a quick and easy way to engage with followers. A Company or Brand would upload a photo to their various social media feeds and the best caption for the photo would have the winning-follower claim a prize. An alternative idea to expand on this in order to encourage even more engagement would be to run a “12 Days of Christmas” Caption Competition.

Another idea would be to host a longer Advent Calendar Competition. For each day a Prize is announced, offering various incentives such as voucher codes, which can gradually be scaled up to larger prizes such as a high-value item or even a luxury Spa experience or All-expenses-paid Holiday for two.

Conclusion

Here are just a few ways to incentivise and engage with consumers, customers and followers in the run-up to Christmas 2020. If you’d like to encourage and gain more traction in your social media following, these are some great ways to interact with others in order to get everyone involved with the Christmas period!