Headless Commerce and Why it Has Been Growing

Headless commerce and why it sas been growing

Between 2022 and 2032, the headless commerce market size is expected to grow with a CAGR of 22.1%. It’s a CMS system where the back-end and front-end of an online store work separately. Businesses and brands can use this feature to provide highly personalized user experiences by customizing the user interface and design to improve customer experience. Today, headless commerce has become one of the fastest and rising trends. This is what we are here to find out today and get into the details of headless commerce’s popularity.

What is Headless Commerce?

Headless commerce is a new form of eCommerce architecture that separates the front-end from the back-end operations. Also called API-First eCommerce architecture, the back-end and front-end communicate through an API layer.
Headless Commerce gives brands and businesses the creative freedom of unique storefront designs. It takes away the earlier monolithic designing approach while giving designers extensive control over the development process.
Moreover, it gives them the capability to choose different tech stacks to build the best composite of tools for their business.

Benefits of Headless Commerce

  1. Extensive Creative Control: With a headless commerce system, brand designers can create what they envision. They can go beyond the pre-defined template and presentation layers to create something that aligns with the business goals.

It is true that taking the monolithic structure approach does take less time, effort, and costs. However, to build a unique digital identity and improve recognition, customizing the interface is necessary.

  1. Better Performance: It only takes a fraction of the time for a potential customer to stay on your website or bounce off to another one. In this scenario, low-speed eCommerce websites are detrimental to your brand.

With headless commerce, you can make fast-performing websites. This is because the speed-hijacking back-end works separately, which gives a speed boost to the front-end.

  1. Plug-and-Play Experience: Headless commerce includes picking bespoke elements to build the eCommerce website. When you take existing templates and systems to build a website, the pre-coded integrations may or may not fit with the website.

However, with headless commerce, you get powerful APIs that are compatible with all the existing systems and platforms. Using this, we can build a powerful and customized eCommerce platform, allowing the customer to have a seamless experience.
Moreover, we can also integrate APIs with the programming language of our choice, which makes headless commerce stores immune from shifts in technology.

The Growth Of Headless Commerce

Today, headless commerce is among the mainstream technologies that help businesses improve customer experiences. The flexibility and agility provided by headless commerce is of paramount importance and a big reason for its growth.
Especially at a time of global instability, technologies like headless commerce are helping businesses stay ahead from their competitors. As brands navigate the complexities of a dynamic business environment, the importance of microservices and cloud computing is becoming clearer.

Read this blog also: Why Outsourcing development of ecommerce software is a good idea for Startups

Headless commerce’s popularity stems from several reasons, in addition to the flexibility and agility it offers.

  • The way headless commerce handles PCI compliance and mitigation reduces the need for IT teams as SaaS service providers take control of their work. This ultimately reduces the development time and cost.
  • With different APIs and SaaS service providers taking control, the online store’s security, payment system, customer management, etc., improves. As a result, the customers gain from a better overall experience.

Headless commerce is gaining popularity because it fits with the business and work needs of several sectors. This work structure is applicable in D2C businesses, Small or Medium scale enterprises, Manufacturing houses, and online retailers. Moreover, bloggers, tech startups, and non-profit organizations can also use this technology to deliver services and solutions online.
This composable structure of headless commerce is akin to playing Lego. Developers and designers use different types of solutions, like building blocks, to build a complete platform. What businesses love in headless commerce is how they can take advantage of every single component’s independence.
Going forward, Gartner has predicted that businesses will prefer the API-first and the API-only approach. Taking this approach, even the existing SaaS model will be considered a legacy system.

Conclusion

Headless commerce technology is a representation of the composable structure wherein all the elements are independent of each other. However, they bind together to deliver a seamless experience to the end users. Businesses use this approach to gain full creative freedom, flexibility, and agility to build online platforms.
Headless commerce development structure has multiple applications, from building an eCommerce store to creating a blogging website to a startup creating its online presence.
At Reinforce Global, we help modern-day businesses enhance their website’s design and development structure. Get in touch with us today to know more about how headless commerce can benefit your business.

October 19, 2023 eCommerce development No comments yet
An All-Inclusive On How to Start an Online Store with Shopify

An All-Inclusive On How to Start an Online Store with Shopify!

The availability of almost everything online has significantly boosted the demand for online stores. Today, no matter if the person wants to buy a car or a small hairpin, they definitely check the product online.

With an increase in online shopping, many brands have surfaced, making it easy for sellers to set up an online store. WordPress, Shopify, and Woocommerce are some common names of eCommerce platforms that allow budding entrepreneurs to venture into the online selling business.

Why Shopify?

Among all of them, Shopify is an eCommerce platform that most sellers prefer. Here are some facts and statistics supporting the same.

  • Shopify powers over 4 million online stores worldwide.
  • The eCommerce platform is used by sellers in around 175 countries.
  • 65% of Shopify stores are based in the United States.
  • You can use Shopify for a selling cost as minimum as $5 per month.

By reading these stats, you might have decided to set up a Shopify store. The next question that you might have popped into your mind is how to start a successful Shopify store.

Let’s read ahead and find out all about it in this article.

How to Start a Shopify Store for Beginners — All the Essential Steps!

Make sure that you follow each and every step described below to get the best output!

  1. Have all the Prerequisites Ready!

The number one step to starting an online store is to have all the prerequisite information in hand. Before you begin an online store, you need to have the following!

  • The list of products and their images.
  • The pages you want and the content for the same.
  • The business idea and the website logo.

Other than these, your motive should be clear in your mind. You must be sure about the time and money you need to invest in the store. Most importantly, be clear about how casual or serious you are with this business.

  1. Get a Good Business Name

Starting an online store officially begins with deciding on a business name. This is an essential step. However, you need to ensure that you don’t spend much time on it. It is best to have the word ‘store’ or ‘shop’ in the name to decide on a domain easily later on. For example, if you are a jewelry business, go for an antique jewelry shop.

  1. Make a Shopify Account

When you have a business name, you need to make a Shopify account. In the beginning, you can go for a 14-day free trial that the platform offers. When you have signed up for the trial, you need to enter some details like your business name, email address, and password.

After answering some questions, you will see the dashboard of your Shopify account.

Tip: Make sure to think carefully before entering your business name, as you won’t be able to change it after that.

  1. Begin Adding Product

Yes, you must be tempted to redesign the store as per your preferences to make it look vibrant and attractive. However, adding products to your store will give you a better value for your time in the initial stages.

To add products, click on the Products Tab on the left, and choose “add your products.” In the add product section, there are numerous variables that you need to take care of.

Product Title Keep the product title relevant, clear, and as short as possible.
Description  In the descriptions.

 

·         Highlight your product’s USP.

·         Keep the product descriptions simple to read, short, and crisp.
Product media Add high-quality images and videos. The image should be 800 by 800 pixels for Shopify.

 

For videos, ensure that it is not longer than 10 minutes and less than 1 GB in size.
Product price  Make sure you keep the price of the product which isn’t much high so that users refrain from buying the product and is not too low, which may question the quality of the product.

Other than these details, you also need to add details like inventory, shipping, product variants, and search engine listing details. These details include a meta title and meta description. Do a thorough keyword search before writing the title and meta description. Keep the meta-description of 155-160 characters.

Tip: You can also make product collections once you have added all the products to the store. Shopify enables you to do it manually or automatically.

  1. Work on the Other Pages

After adding the products to the store, you need to focus on developing the other pages. About Us, Blog, Contact, etc., are some of the most crucial pages for your online store.

These pages can help the users understand your business well and make an informed choice based on their understanding.

  1. Get Started with the Visual Part

The visual part of your store includes a lot of things, such as

  • Navigation bar: this bar will contain all the major pages of your website. You can create it by going to Online Store > Navigation.
  • Theme: Go to the Shopify Theme store and pick your favorite theme. Make sure that the theme has all the features you need.

After this step, you can create the homepage of your store and add a logo to it. You can also make some color and font changes as the theme permits.

  1. Work on the Operational Part

Once the visual aspect is done, go for the functional aspect of the store!

  • Setting shipping rates: Go to Settings > Shipping and Delivery. Here you can set your shipping area and rates. You can go for flat, calculated, or free shipping rates.
  • Set up taxes: Go to Settings > Taxes and Duties and set up taxes based on your country.
  • Choose a payment gateway: In Settings > Payments, select the payment gateway using which you want to receive payments.

Note: There are over 100 payment gateways supported by Shopify!

All these are the basic and major steps for how to start a successful online store with Shopify. However, it is best to connect the store to a domain before you launch it.
You can do it by going to Settings > Domains. Here, you can either buy a new domain or connect to an existing one.

Conclusion

These are some major steps that you need to take to get an online store started. However, Shopify has a lot more to offer. You can develop your store further by focusing on SEO, leveraging content marketing, using online ads to drive sales, and whatnot. You can even add more channels to expand your reach. This is all about How to start a successful Shopify store.
If you are looking for professional support in developing an online Shopify store, you can seek assistance from Reinforce Global. The IT agency offers its clients all-inclusive app development, web development, and other IT services.

February 3, 2023 Shopify, Shopify Store, Website Development No comments yet
How AI Will Improve Customer Experience in 2023

How AI Will Improve Customer Experience in 2023

Whether it is an online website or a phone app, customer experience is the primary element that transforms the stature of a business. It doesn’t matter how good the user interface is; if the functioning and navigation of the website are not good, users will not entertain your business.

As per stats, 42% of the customers are willing to pay more if offered a friendly customer experience. Now, with the speed at which technology is accelerating, it can be tough to keep up with the competition all the time. Hence, the use of top-end technologies like AI, ML, Blockchain, and many others has increased.

Out of these, artificial intelligence has gained massive traction in the past decade. It is being used in almost every industry today. But how can it affect customer experience? How can AI for customer experience be beneficial? Let s read ahead and find out in this article!

What is AI for Customer Experience?

If we talk about AI first, AI is a technology that enables machines to do human-like tasks easily. Though it cannot mimic all human tasks, it can surely ease some of the tasks for humans.

Companies today use artificial intelligence to deliver better solutions to their clients and customers. How? Well, customer data is the centerpiece of this. AI helps firms to devise better and more valuable insights from the data gathered from various sources. The data is huge heaps, so it can take time to analyze for a human. Hence, artificial intelligence comes into the picture.

An excellent example of AI for customer experience is personalization. When a user interacts with a website, the website can keep track of pages the user has visited and the user of the product has searched for. This data is fed to a machine learning algorithm (part of AI) that finds a pattern in them and, based on them, suggests choices to target users with personalized products. Hence, enhancing customer experience.

As per stats, AI will power 95% of customer interactions. It shows that if you are not packed and jacked with AI applications, you may be crushed by your competitors.

How are AI Applications ready to Boost Customer Experience in 2023?

So, when it comes to customer experience backed by AI, there are various ways AI can improve and enhance it. Here are some of them!

AI Chatbots

If you have visited websites dedicated to the app or website development, you will likely see a chatbox at the bottom right or left of the page. Not only development but some shopping and entertainment sites also have these chatboxes.

Now, these chatboxes are controlled by chatbots at the backend. They can help users with some basic queries related to the subject. But, with the collaboration of AI and chatbots, it can be enhanced further to improve customer service and experience.

Though AI-backed chatbots are not ideal for all types of tasks, they can surely be used for some basic customer services like invoice management, order details, and account management. Today, some chatbots can even handle refunds for businesses. The chatbot built within the app can handle simple refunds if the user complains about bad food quality or missing items.

As 23% of customer service companies are currently using chatbots and 68% of the users enjoy the speed at which chatbot answers, they are surefire to improve customer experience.

Hyper-Personalization

How do you see only those ads on Google that interest you? It is because of personalization. Personalization is all about keeping track of what you are viewing on the web or a specific website. Websites keep track of what you are viewing on a website and target you with suggestions and ads later on.

With the help of artificial intelligence, it can be further enhanced as business owners can scan more data in less time. AI applications can help analyze heaps of data to consider previous customer preferences, conversation history, and other critical information to provide valuable suggestions. This can save a lot of time people spend searching for the required product or service.

If you need an example of AI and Hyper-Personalization, here is one!

Naked Wine is an online wine retailer that uses Hyper personalization to provide wine recommendations to its users. They collect user reviews and feedback and perform predictive analysis to offer wine suggestions that the users may like.

Real-time Decisioning and Predictive Behavior Analysis

Real-time decisioning deals with analyzing real-time interactions of users to provide them with suggestions and recommendations. There are millions of users interacting with a website at a time. Hence, manually analyzing data related to each interaction can be tough. This is where AI comes into the picture.

Artificial intelligence combined with machine learning is the perfect solution for this. Businesses can capture real-time data while the user interacts with the website and provide the required results. For example, if the user has just skipped an expensive product, you can offer them more cost-effective choices.

On top of that, predictive behavior analysis can also be performed on the data. Predictive behavior analysis is about modeling the data to find patterns and routines to target users with valuable suggestions. The best thing about predictive behavior analysis is knowing what to present to the user and when to present it.

Conclusion

So, if you are a business trying to make it to the top in the competitive market, you need to leverage the power of AI for customer experience. You see, customer experience needs to be super smooth and immersive. Hence, you need to keep it focused and qualitative. With a variety of methods out there, it can become tough. Therefore, artificial intelligence can be useful. It can keep your business always in the eyes of your prospects while you can work on more important things.

If you need any help with AI applications related to customer experience, you can rely on Reinforce Global. The custom software development firm in the US has adept professionals and years of experience.

December 20, 2022 AI applications, AI for customer experience, Artificial intelligence, Augmented reality, Augmented Reality No comments yet
Web Development in 2022 Latest trends, mistakes, and misconceptions

Web Development in 2022: Latest trends, mistakes, and misconceptions

The world of web development is constantly transforming with new and significant changes altering the landscape and forcing the competition to evolve and keep pace.

Understanding the latest trends and transformations in the web development world helps businesses figure out what to focus on and make the right business growth decisions. Additionally, knowing the common misconceptions about web development and major mistakes that developers make allows businesses to stay ahead of the competition.

Let’s look at some trends, misconceptions, and mistakes about web development in 2022.

Web Development Trends 2022

Let’s begin by looking at the web development trends of 2022.

  1. AI- A sure-shot way for enhanced customer experience

Artificial intelligence is a game-changer in various industries, and web development is no exception. AI has simplified, personalized, and improved customer experiences. By incorporating AI in chatbots, virtual assistants, and product design, businesses are harnessing the immense potential of this technology.
AI-powered chatbots have become a staple in websites as they deliver enhanced customer support. By being trained on NLP, these chatbots provide personalized customer support by analyzing user behavior, search and purchase history.

  1. Blockchain – For enhanced security

Blockchain is the latest technology advancing the security and transparency needs of the business. Blockchain is a centralized repository of all transactions, allowing for greater accessibility, transparency, and security. For the web development industry, in particular, blockchain has been useful in creating a secure payment gateway system that eliminates the risk of identity and data theft.

  1. AR and VR – For an Immersive customer experience

Augmented and virtual reality usher in immersive customer experiences by blending the digital environment with the real world. AR and VR are used to provide product visualization tools, market, and demonstrate new products in web applications.

  1. Voice Search – A simpler and better way to navigate the web

Voice search is still one of the leading transformative technologies that are reimaging how people search for web products and services. It is convenient, faster, and provides accurate results.

  1. SPA – Seamless Navigation

Single Page Applications are becoming the most preferred application framework. Unlike a typical web application that loads with every click, a SPA will only have to load the HTML page once as there is no need to navigate from one page to another.

In addition to delivering a seamless and smooth navigation experience, it comes with a faster load speed with limited bandwidth usage.

Web Development – Misconception

Similar to any industry, there are a lot of misconceptions and misinformation when it comes to web development. Clearing out these false impressions’ paves the way for a better and enhanced web application.

  1. Rough on the pocket

Unlike generally perceived, web application development is not extremely expensive or unaffordable. The fear of running into financial trouble deters many businesses from investing in it. With a clear idea about your requirements, you can be sure that it is not rough on the pocket or time-consuming.

2. Exclusive for Large conglomerates

Web development is not the exclusive domain of the large and powerful. The first thing a business- big or small – should do is develop a web application. Every business – regardless of size – can benefit from a web presence.

  1. A thing of the past

Many internet commentators had written off web development a few years ago, yet here we are talking about the latest trends in web development. It is obsolete.

  1. Serverless architecture

Serverless architecture is best suited for prototyping or building applications that do not require additional development. If the business has an application poised to grow, the developer will be compelled to shift from serverless architecture to API. This transition could prove to be costly and complex. Opting for a serverless architecture from the beginning is not the right move.

  1. Virtual Reality

VR is not an essential part of web development, and when incorporated, it demands the use of expensive equipment and expert help.

Web Development Mistakes in 2022

Every experienced or novice web developer would have made these mistakes. However, if these are not rectified, these mistakes could grow into blunders that could drastically impact the outcome of projects.

  1. Not exploring CSS Framework

The CSS framework is extensively used to develop websites with multiple browser versions and is compatible with several browsers. When a CSS framework is used, it can help developers eliminate bugs that might crop up during testing. As a result, when developers use the CSS framework, they can develop faster and more efficient applications.

  1. Not Testing Enough

Not testing enough is a recipe for disaster. Testing is one of the fundamental steps in developing web applications. Testing should ideally be done at several stages in the development process – performance, functionality, user, usability, and more.

Once the development phase is done, the application must be tested on multiple platforms – cross-device and cross-browser testing to check compatibility.

  1. Non-responsive layout

A responsive web front-end is ideal, but it is not always the case. A responsive front-end ensures that the changes made to the website’s appearance are dynamically modified depending on the device or orientation the user uses to view.
Initially, it is alright for the developer to sidestep mobile views. However, once the mobile views are set in, it is better to implement them into your code, keeping in mind the needs of your mobile screen.

  1. Developing unscalable architecture 

When building applications, it is always prudent to make the architecture flexible and scalable to handle future requirements and growth needs. Building apps that cater to future needs help you save time, coding, and energy.

  1. Design Overboard

A new developer or a business venturing into the world of websites for the first time could want a lot of design elements in their website that might seem overly complicated or cluttered. Therefore, it is always better to question the purpose of colors and design elements and make a sleek website that serves a purpose.

Although the looks and feel of a website matters, what really turns the tide in your favor would be the performance. But always ensure the web application you have performs well, loads fast, and provides a valuable experience to customers. To get the best of your web applications, get the best in the industry to work for you.

As one of the leading mobile app development companies in the US, Reinforce Global provides end-to-end mobile app solutions. Our experts are proficient in cross-platform mobile development and can handle the entire project from concept to design, development to testing and launch. Using an agile development methodology, we can create intuitive Android apps and iOS mobile applications that have the potential to take your business to greater heights.

July 25, 2022 Website Development No comments yet
Digital Selling & Servicing Trends from the World of Virtual Home

Digital Selling Trends from the World of Virtual Home

The pandemic has expedited digital transformation and it changes every aspect of our lives like the way we work, shop, and live. Real estate is no exception.

Just like other industries real estate also rises with disruption in 2020. To accommodate people on the move of a pandemic the industry was going through the stimulation of digital capabilities to assist renters, buyers, and sellers. A report of a survey conducted by Zillow indicates that 36% of American buyers and 43% of sellers are more likely to purchase homes completely online.

A remarkable Americans have changed their thinking about the living situation. It may be temporary or for the long term but has led to an exceptional requirement for contactless and remote or in other words virtual real estates transactions like viewing, inspections, or mortgaging. Gen Z or millennials prefer digital end-to-end customer journeys.

This is the best time to invest in the digital experience of services you offer to buyers and renters cause the landscape of real estate has been shifted to composite online and in person. Your properties may be left behind if you are unable to accommodate online research and purchase in the online experience of your website & mobile application.

We have summarised ideas on how to upgrade the digital experience you offer and how Reinforce Global can help you to add innovative features in your web and app to give a seamless digital experience to buyers, sellers, and renters.

Empowered Touring 

Home buying, selling, and financing platforms are using maximum technologies to engross browsers into a potential home. So that they can boost the confidence of shoppers during the selection process and empower customers to experience locations safely on their terms.

Americans prefer agents who provide 3D property touring but there are lower-tech options are also available. Self-touring and online buying can make the house-hunting process easy. E.g. Website visitors can schedule a self-tour as per their convenience and receive an OTP to unlock the door, take a tour and then buy online.

Interactive and Immersive Maps

After the virtual home tour, the next step is a tour of the neighborhood. Interactive maps of the vicinity should be provided by real estate and rental companies. The key amenities can be highlighted in an interactive map and it will provide more information to buyers without visiting in person.

Integrate Video Calls and Chat Options 

It is the key to making your clients feel supported through their journey while you are not able to educate your customers in person in your office. To keep buyers and renters engaged enable easy video calls, outreach, and immediate responses in your digital experience.

Virtual Paperwork and eSignatures 

While closing the deal taking an eSignature has made the process breeze. E-signature and digital documentation is an efficient and established way to exchange documents also a clear traceable record of revision to get referred at any point.

The virtual world has become a major part of the real estate business and it is here to stay. If you want to upgrade your real estate website or application, let’s talk.

November 2, 2021 Augmented reality No comments yet
WordPress is Perfect Solution

WordPress is Perfect Solution – Here is why

Undoubtedly WordPress is the most popular website builder platform. WordPress power more than 40% of all websites. In 2003 WordPress started as a blogging platform, but over the years it becomes extremely versatile allowing users to make a fully-featured website of any category.

If you are still not sure if WordPress is the right choice for you, Here are some reasons explaining why WordPress.

1. Best CMS
WordPress was found as Content management system. No competitor currently compares to the power, elegance and advanced tools you will find in the WordPress. Its plugin and templating architecture encourage a large community of developers and designers to extend the functionality of the platform.

2. SEO Friendly:
SEO is something very vital in online business hence everyone must focus on it from the inception of the site. WordPress have a feature that automatically generates title tags and meta descriptions for your pages and posts. This makes easy for search engine to know about your content and will get it indexed and leads to better ranking. With all these there are some more advanced features offered by plugins and1 other online tools. Hence it is widely known as SEO built into the platform.

3. Secure and safe:
In general good security measures are taken by WordPress team. This does not mean that there are absolutely no chances of malicious attacks or hacking on your website.

Enabling SSL certificate for your WordPress website is easy. Probably you would get it from hosting service. Keep your website up-to-date to fight off bugs and security threats. You can strengthen your site’s security with features like password protection for folder contents. Doors might be lock but to add some more layers you can install WordPress Security plugin.

4. Mobile friendly:
The WordPress back-end is completely mobile responsive. If your website is built in WordPress you don’t have to update your entire site just to make it mobile responsive, Many themes are automatically responsive. There are a variety of tools and strategies that can be used by WordPress site owners with the core WordPress to make sites mobile-friendly.

5. Various eCommerce solutions:
To establish an impactful online presence on the internet best e-commerce solution which is multipurpose, clean, and polished is a WordPress eCommerce theme. It suits almost all online store ranging from apparel to electronics.

6. WordPress keeps improving:
Because it is open-source coding, innovative developers keep improving it as the year pass. The staff of WordPress keeps adding features and developers create new plugins and program new features so that site can be customized.

Key Takeaway:
WordPress has many followers all around the globe. There is hardly anything that you can’t do with this powerful content management system. WordPress site will look professional, drive results, and easy to maintain. Hence it is the perfect and best choice for Business owners, eCommerce professionals, bloggers, and developers with clients. It gives you complete control over your site with free benefits like themes, free tools, plugins, and media support.

The above suggestions should have convinced you to make or switch to WordPress. Visit Reinforce Global to make your first website with WordPress.

July 7, 2021 Wordpress website development No comments yet
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