Customer service is becoming increasingly important for businesses nowadays, and live chat, as a convenient and instant contact method, has found to be more than helpful. If you are considering connecting with your visitors and customers in an efficient yet simple way, then live chat is a good solution.

In fact, in addition to easy communication, adding a live chat option on your site also brings many other benefits regardless of the type of site you are running.

  • making your website credible. your site looks more professional and official with a chat option, and you can gain a boost of the authority because even the first-time visitors know that you are real.
  • increasing the conversion rate. sites with good customer service through live chat are expected to attain over 50% higher conversion rates, and surveys have shown that more than 30% customers would complete their purchases during a chat.
  • building your brand. sites that value customers and their needs can go a long way.

There are a number of plugins that can help you with the process of adding live chat to WordPress. And in this tutorial, we will introduce one of the best choices – Tidio Live chat, a plugin that suits most sites' needs.

wordpress-feature-image

Get Started with Tidio Live Chat Plugin

Tidio Live Chat has been keeping a high rating of 4.9 stars in the WordPress plugin directory, which makes it a problem-free choice of live chat plugin. While being light-weight, the plugin comes with many features including:

  • the tracking of site visitors.
  • apps for desktop and mobile devices.
  • offline messages which enable visitors to send emails to you when you are offline.
  • easy customization, with three designs and unlimited color schemes available for use.
  • integration with mailchimp, zendesk, etc, which makes your online life even easier.

To make use of Tidio Live Chat, you first have to install the plugin on your site and get it activated. The activation will generate a menu item named Tidio Chat in your dashboard. Click on the menu to go to the configuration panel.

The plugin offers an external panel on the official Tidio website instead of in the WordPress dashboard. Before accessing the panel, you are required to finish some basic settings, for example, entering your domain name and the operator name, selecting a color scheme for the live chat box, and selecting an avatar.

Create an Account

When entering the panel, you will notice that you are in a 7-day trial status. To keep the service active and to unlock all the free features, you need to create an account with Tidio Live Chat which can be done by clicking on the "Create your account" link in the sidebar.

Now a popup will appear asking you to enter your email address and password. After clicking on the "Sign up" button, your account will be active.

By default, you are put in a trial of a paid version. To downgrade to the free version, click on the "Upgrade now" button on the upper right of the screen and choose "Downgrade to Basic" on the plan page. Also, you can purchase a paid version if you need.

Manage Your Site Visitors

On the panel, you are located in the Visitors section by default where you can get a list of all the visitors currently on your site. The information available includes the country of the visitor, the device he/she is using, and which page he/she is reading.

Clicking on any of the visitors, you can start a chat with him/her instantly. This function is great because it allows you to reach visitors actively to know their needs.

On the chat screen, you get an option to ban visitors that abuse your live chat service.

Configure the Live Chat Settings

After clicking on the Settings menu in the sidebar, you get several options for configuring chats, adding operators, managing notifications and more. Basically, you need to deal with the following parts.

Chat: Under the "Chat" tab, enter your email address so that offline messages can be sent to you. Also, you have to select an appropriate timezone according to the geographical location of your visitors. Besides, if you have banned any visitor, you will see the details there.

Operators: You, the owner, are the default operator of the live chat. If you have extra personnel to contribute to the chat, you can add additional operators easily. However, you must know this is an option for the paid plans only.

Notifications: Under this tab, you can enable the sound notifications for new visitors, new chat requests and new chat messages according to your need.

Besides these settings, you can enable chat reports under the "Preference" tab and send them to an email address with a certain frequency. Opening hours can also be defined, but to use this feature, you must have a paid plan.

Customize the Display of the Live Chat Option

In the Appearance menu, Tidio Live Chat gives you three options for the placement of the live chat option – chat widget, sidebar, and chat page. The choice is completely yours, and in below, we will explain the configurations of each of them.

Widget

This is the default option. Once the Tidio Live Chat plugin is activated, you will get a floating chat entry on the bottom right of your WordPress site, just like what shown below.

For the chat box displayed with the widget, you can change the theme, select any color you like, provide a custom message for the online/offline status, and change the position between left and right. When making changes, you get both desktop and mobile previews instantly.

Besides, you are able to make a choice among displaying the widget on any device, displaying it on mobile devices only, and displaying them on desktop devices only. You can even exclude certain pages from the display.

As the plugin has also prepared a mobile widget, you can customize the text, position and size of the chat button.

In addition, the plugin provides an option to enable pre-chat survey which helps you collect the email addresses of your visitors.

Sidebar

By enabling the sidebar display, you will get a floating chat button on the left/right side of your site. You can choose the position, button color and the text displayed on the button. The sidebar chat button is a popular yet un-annoying strategy to provide live chat.

Chat page

This is a separate page you can use to chat with your visitors. However, you must pay attention that it does not exist on your site, and instead, it is a page on the Tidio website. For this page, you can upload you own background image, change the base color, and customize the texts. For most sites, this chat page is unnecessary.

Set up Quick Responses

One of the greatest features of Tidio Live Chat is that it allows you to create quick responses to some frequently asked questions so that you can save time in answering the same questions again and again.

To add quick responses, access the Quick Responses menu in the panel and then click on the "Add" button.

In the box that pops up, enter the message you have prepared and then save it. Links are supported in the message.

After quick responses are added, you can still edit or delete them easily. And to use these quick responses, you only need to type "@" in the chat box and select the response you want.

Integrate Tidio Live Chat with Other Services

Within the Apps menu, Tidio Live Chat provides easy integration with 24 popular social networks, email services, analytics software and other services, including:

  • google analytics, for tracking events like "finished chats" and "started chats".
  • facebook, for adding a live chat tab on the facebook page.
  • mailchimp, for collecting email addresses from the pre-chat surveys so as to make a better email marketing plan.
  • zendesk, for opening support tickets from the chat window directly.

For the integration with each service, Tidio provides a step-by-step tutorial so you should not worry about the process.

Read:What to Do If Your Website Isn't Generating Any Sales Leads

Use Tidio Live Chat on Different Devices

As is discussed in the plugin introduction, Tidio Live Chat is convenient enough to be used on multiple devices so that you don't have to stay on your site all the time. To deliver better user experience, the plugin comes with iOS/Android apps, a Google Chrome extension, and a desktop app. An app for Windows phone is coming soon, too.

Read:Appraisals Of Various Directory Submissions

You can simply download any of the available apps or combine several of them together to offer the best customer service to your visitors and customers.

Read:How To Draw L-Section or Longitudinal Section Of Sewer Line in Ms Excel


Marketingforall

Before getting a website online, you have to obtain a domain name for it. The domain, then, is the identity of the website.

There are hundreds of TLDs available on the market, and depending on your choice, the cost of a domain name could vary from a couple of dollars to several hundreds of dollars per year. For the commonly seen TLDs like .net, .com and .org, the yearly price is about $12.

If you want to eliminate the cost while hosting a small website, you can gain a free domain name via several ways. In below, we will show you the popular ways and present their pros and cons.Also donot forget that you can always order erp solutions development services.

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Use a Free Subdomain as the Domain of Your Website

This solution falls into two main types of services. One of these services is the free hosting offered by the website publishing services like WordPress.com, and another is the generous offer from web hosting providers.

Website publishing services

This type is very popular among beginners, and WordPress.com is exactly a featured service in the type. To build a website with WordPress.com or a service alike, you don't need to pay a penny for either hosting or the domain name. Right after signing up, you can register a subdomain and get a website started within minutes.

With such a service, however, your website is available with a domain like onlinebusiness.wordpress.com instead of yourdomain.com, which is not good for brand building. Another disadvantage is that you don't have complete control over the website. Since it is available under the wordpress.com main domain, the management team usually has the right to remove your website at any time without any previous notice.

Besides, website publishing services specify the tools you can use to build a website. For example, with WordPress.com, you can only set up a site with WordPress, and with Weebly, you are restricted to this website builder, too.

However, if you have decided to try a certain website builder, it is good to use the tool for free under a subdomain.

Web hosting providers

Some web hosting providers like 000WebHost offer free hosting services and allow you to build a website with various applications under a free subdomain. The advantage of using these services is that you get an easy-to-use control panel and many other features, while the disadvantage is the limited resources. Also, there are several other reasons not to use free web hosting, such as website ads, decreased security, and poor technical support.

Besides free hosting, some paid hosting services also include free subdomains. For instance, A2Hosting provides the option to host websites on free A2Hosting subdomains. After signing up with A2Hosting, you don't have to register a domain first in order to start a site, and instead, you can make use of the subdomains to have a test of the performance or build any website you want. Paid hosting services are usually much more reliable than the free ones.

Get a Free Domain from a Hosting Package

Nowadays, many web hosting providers pack their hosting packages with a free custom domain name. This means when placing an order, you can register your own domain like yourbrand.com or yourbrand.net without paying an extra fee for it. The differences between such a domain and the subdomain discussed above are:

  • The custom domain shows more professionalism of your brand and helps build brand awareness.
  • You have full control over the domain so you are able to transfer it anywhere else you like at any time.

The TLDs offered for free are usually the popular ones like .com, .org, .net, .info, .biz and .us. This is great because these TLDs should meet the expectation of most webmasters.

In terms of the free domain packed with a hosting plan, you should pay attention to the free term. Most web hosts on the market, like BlueHost, allow free registration for one year only, which means you need to pay after the first year of registration.

However, there are still a few hosting providers offering a lifetime free domain. Once you sign up with them, you can register a domain with them for free and never pay for it until the day you terminate your hosting account. If you are looking for such a hosting provider, below are the good options.

Get a Free Domain from a Hosting Upgrade

If you have already been using a hosting service and want one more domain for free, you can try upgrading your hosting package. Some web hosts will offer free domain upon service upgrade.

Most VPS hosting providers we have reviewed provide at least one domain name in their hosting packages. So in the case that you have been hosting on a shared hosting platform and want to host more websites on one account, you can upgrade to a VPS to get free domains.

If your hosting provider doesn't present free domain in the VPS feature lists, you can also contact the sales team to ask for one. By doing so, you may earn a domain for the upgrade.

Conclusion

The three methods introduced above are the popular ways to get a free domain for your website. Of course, there are some other less popular ways, too. Below are two of them.

  • Some web hosting providers may release promotions occasionally allowing you to register a domain for free by purchasing a cheap hosting package.
  • By participating in particular affiliate programs, you are able to earn a commission of domains or free domain registrations by referring people. Such affiliate programs are not commonly seen, but you will find some if you have a careful research on the Internet

Marketingforall

In case you haven’t heard, people love their RSS readers and social bookmarking sites. This tutorial discusses the buttons you want to have on your blog, why you want them, the html code for them, and offers the iest syndication button images you can find.

You want to have these “add to my” syndication buttons on your blogs because the more people press these buttons, the more likely you are to have repeat visitors.

These buttons should appear “above the fold” of your site – meaning that when surfers land on your site, they should not have to scroll to see the these buttons. I see sites all the time that have 5 different sized syndication buttons; this looks unprofessional. IMO, 91 X 17 pixels is the onle way go for any company logo button.

Sometimes you see sites with a gap between each of the buttons. This seems like a waste of real estate to me. Of course it’s a personal preference . . . but then again, so is bathing.

While you could probably add hundreds of these types of buttons to your site, these are the ones that seem to matter most:

1. Start with the basic XML button:
Subscribe.
This will accommodate the people who are looking for your RDF.

2. The most important syndication button is arguably the “add to my yahoo” button:
Subscribe to SEO Black Hat on Yahoo
Not only does Yahoo have a commanding lead in RSS market share, but putting this button on your site and adding your site to a my.yahoo account helps to summon the Inktomi spider to crawl and index your site. Your can sign up for a my.yahoo account here.

 

Read more: Welcome to Easy Development

 

3. Next is Bloglines. Bloglines is a great service – I use it and know tons of others who swear by it. So the bloglines syndication button is a must:
Subscribe to SEO Black Hat on Bloglines
Make sure to create a Bloglines account and add your own blogs (and seoblackhat.com of course).

4. MSN is a bit tricky. After you put the button on your site, you have to press it, wait and hope the MSN bot gets around to checking out your site. If it’s an adult site or one MSN deems spammy they may not add you to their RSS search. You’ll know by creating a MS passport account and trying to add your site’s feed.
Subscribe to SEO Black Hat on MSN
If they don’t add your site to the search after about 5 days, you might consider not using this button.

5. Newsgator’s another service that has a loyal following. It therefore makes sense to have this button on your website:
Subscribe to SEO Black Hat on Newsgator
Sign up for a newsgator account here and add your blogs.

6. The most recent of the RSS readers is some start-up company called Google and their Google-Reader. I’ve never heard of them, but their logo’s kind of catchy so I say ‘why not add this button?’:
Subscribe to SEO Black Hat on Google Reader
If someone wants to sharpen or touch up that image a little, we would all appreciate it.

 

Read more: How to Block Referrer Spam Effectively

 

7. On the Social Bookmarking front the biggest one is still probably del.icio.us. While the strategy behind having a domain name that no one can remember how to type is questionable, they are still enjoying some early success. I made this del.icio.us syndication button and did a pretty damn nice job if I do say so myself:
del.icio.us SEO Black Hat
You can register for a del.icio.us account here.

8. While this button doesn’t quite fit the theme of the buttons above, it’s the hottest one I could find for furl.net:
Furl SEO Black Hat
Again, you’ll want to make a furl account and add your own sites.

Obviously, you need to make sure you are pinging all the RSS reader services by using a great RSS ping list.

All these syndication button images are avaible in this directory along with a text file that has the html code to include the syndication buttons in your blogs’ sidebar .

If you want to pull a “single white female” on me and use my uber-y inverted buttons, it’s cool – but I’d appreciate a back link.

 

Read more: Your budget is almost empty and you need new clients fast? Do you use cross marketing?


Marketingforall

Due to the lack of experience and professional knowledge, beginners may encounter technical problems when trying to start an online store without the help of an experienced webmaster. The obstacles usually exist in the installation of eCommerce software, category building, product uploading, shipping settings, and so on. Perhaps you don't need an online store at all. Perhaps you need software for movers. If not, read on.

To eliminate all troubles to make the life easier for beginners to build and start an online store, we have worked out a step-by-step guide on using PrestaShop to get a shop into use. This tutorial will guide you through, from the installation of PrestaShop to the configurations of products, which helps you start selling products and services in minutes.

Prerequisites

If you want to start a store online, the first thing you need to consider is to buy a domain name. Domain name is the identity of you store with which people can visit your website, so you need to be careful when choosing the domain. Once you have made the decision, you can register it with a domain registrar or a web host which provides registration service. A domain name usually costs about $12/yr.

Another necessity for building an online store is a web hosting package which offers disk space and bandwidth for the site, account management tools, and 1-click installer for applications like PrestaShop. For the selection of an optimized package, you may refer to the detailed tutorial on this best Prestashop hosting page.

Note: BlueHost is set as an example in this post, so all the operations in control panel discussed below are based on the cPanel of this company.

Install PrestaShop

Installing PrestaShop is quite simple with the help of 1-click installers offered by most web hosts nowadays. BlueHost provides a self-developed auto installer SimpleScripts in cPanel which can automate the installation of PrestaShop. You can access the installer by logging into the control panel and clicking on the icon saying SimpleScripts in the Website Builders section.

As SimpleScripts is now upgraded to be a part a Mojo Marketplace, you should click on the green "Install New Scripts" button on the new page.

On the Install Websites and Applications page, have a click on the eCommerce category in the left sidebar, and you can find PrestaShop with version detail (1.6.0.9 currently). Clicking on PrestaShop, you are now prompted with detailed information about the application. When you hit the green button of Install, you are guided to the installation step by step.

Once you finish the checking of domain, accomplish the confirmation of advanced options (site name, admin name, admin username and admin password), and check the box next to "I have read the terms and conditions", hit the "Install Now" button. Wait a few seconds, and you will see a congratulations page telling you PrestaShop is installed.

For this tutorial, we use the domain http://prestashop.besthostingsearch.org/ to install PrestaShop. Since the installation comes with a default shop with much information and products aiming at helping you know a real store, we get a shop like this.

Log into the New Store

When PrestaShop is installed successfully, you will get an admin URL which usually appears like http://yourdomain.com/presadmin. Clicking on the URL, you are led to the login page. Fill in your admin email and password, you can now get into your new PrestaShop website.

Configure the Basic Store Information

First of all, you need to change the basic information about your store, such as the logo, default currency, contact information and social networks, to make the shop your own. But before making changes, you have the following task to complete.

Put your store in the maintenance mode

Putting your store in the maintenance mode means to deactivate your store. Doing so stops visitors from accessing the site, which is the right option when you make large changes to your store like updating a large number of products, changing the theme or adjusting prices. It is a good habit to turn to the maintenance mode when changes are made because it prevents many troubles brought by the transition.

Here is a screenshot of part of the dashboard of PrestaShop.

In the left sidebar of the dashboard, find the category of Preferences and click on Maintenance. For the "Enable Shop" option, choose NO. To make sure that you can still access the store to check whether the changes have come into effect, you need to fill in the "Maintenance IP" of your site and "Add my IP".

Change the basic information

You have many things to do now because you need to make the following information comply with you real situation so as to transfer the store to be exclusive. As the information is displayed in the front-end of your store, you should make sure the accuracy and exclusiveness.

Shop Name. You have given the shop a name in the installation process, but if you want to make a change, go to Preferences > Store Contacts, and change the shop name in the CONTACT DETAILS part.

Shop Logo. Your shop logo displays at the top left of every page on your store, every invoice, and all emails sent out by your store. To make the store logo to be your own, go to Preferences > Themes, and upload a custom image by clicking "Add file".

Company Information. There is a block in the footer of the store page that presents the company address, call-us phone number and a link that allows visitors to send emails to you.

To customize the information, go to Modules > Modules, and search Contact information block module in the search box of "MODULES LIST". In the drop-down menu of the module, click Configure to enter the Settings. Fill in the blanks with the information about your company.

Customer Service Information. There is a "Contact us" link in the header of the store that requires your phone number and email address for customer support. To change the information, search contact block module and configure it with your phone number and email.

Default Currency. You need to set a default currency to display the price of your products. To manage currency, go Localization > Localization > Configuration to change the default language, country, currency and time zone.

Social Networks. RSS feeds and social icons are displayed in the footer of the homepage, too. Find the Social networking block module in modules, and in the settings, type the URLs of your Facebook, Twitter, RSS, Youtube, Google Plus and Pinterest. If some of the options are left blank, they will not appear in the footer.

CMS Pages. The CMS pages refer to the pages with static content, such as "About Us", "Terms of Use" and "Legal Notice", which are important for your business. To add custom information to the pages, go to Preferences > CMS to edit the pages. You can also choose to add or delete pages.

Custom Blocks. Before the footer, there is 2 custom blocks on the homepage which can be customized as you like. To manage the blocks, you need to find the Custom CMS information block module in MODULES to edit or delete them. Adding new custom blocks is also allowed.

Top Menu. Many themes use menus on the top of stores to make categories clearer and navigation easier. You can customize the menu according to your own needs by accessing Top horizontal menu module. In the settings page, you can add and remove any item in the top menu, and adjust the order. The search bar enables a search box on storefront from which visitors can search through the whole site for products, services and information.

Create New Products

Adding a new product on your store is simple but a little bit time-consuming because you have much information to fill in. When you go to Catalog > Products, you can find a product list containing all the products in your shop. The information includes ID number, product name and photo, category, price, quantity and status. The "Filter by category" option allows you to browse products by categories.

Fill in product information

By clicking on either button for adding new products, you are led to a page with a dozen of options for the products. The first part is Information that requires you to add basic information for the new product. You have to choose from 3 product types (standard product, virtual product and pack), add the product name, an internal reference code, and the barcode of the product.

Below the part is some options related to the product. If you choose NO to Enabled, your product will not be displayed on the front-end of your store. For Visibility, you can choose to make the product visible anywhere, for catalog only, for search only or nowhere (which means that it can be accessed by using its unique URL only).

For Options, just keep the default value. When "Available for order" is unchecked, people cannot add the product to cart. Finally, you can select a condition for the product according to the real situation.

Then it comes to the descriptions and tags. The short description is limited to 400 characters, displaying in search engines and category description. And the description does not limit the length of content, so you can add detailed information about the product. In the description, you can insert images and links to enrich the content. Tags are customizable, so you may add several to help visitors understand the product better.

Once all these are done, click "Save and stay" to add this product and continue the following operations.

Add images to a new product

In the options menu, click on Images to upload images for the product. Hit the "Add files" button, select as many images as you need on the local computer, and then upload the files. Remember to add a caption to each image to make sure that visitors know what they are browsing even if the images fail to display. When the photos are uploaded successfully, they will be listed orderly.

Configure product price

When you edit the information of a product, you can see a Prices tab on the left sidebar of the information page. The price configuration consists of 3 parts, the first of which is the regular product price. You need to set up the wholesale price, retail price, and choose the tax rule to decide the final price of the product.

Create a discount

Below the general price information is a "specific prices" section which allows you to create discounts for the product. Clicking on the "Create new specific price" button, you get a form with details about the discount. The setup process is simple. For example, if there is a plan to discount 50% off for a product on Christmas Day and the discount applies to all customers located in the US, the discount should be like this. People buying at least one piece of this product can get the 50% discount.

Create a Category

Categories help you group products for easier management and better experience of visitors. Also, people can compare the products in the same category before making a decision. Therefore, you need to create different categories for different kinds of products. To get this task done, you need manage categories under Catalog.

The Categories page presents all details about your categories and lists all the available categories. You can adjust the positions, choose whether to display them or not, edit the details about them, and delete any one. To create a new one, click on the "Add new category" button.

On the new page, give a name to the new category, choose the parent category of the new category (for example, if you have already had a category of Women Dress, then it should the parent category of a new category named Women Sts), add a description to the category, and follow all other steps listed on the page. When you create a category, a clean and search engine friendly URL will be generated automatically, which is an appreciated feature of PrestaShop. Click Save after all information is done.

To set up the category of a product, edit the product's Associations and select the targeted category in the "Associated categories".

Add New Employees for Your Store

Adding new employees is necessary if you have other people managing your store. For those people, you need to create an employee account for each of them to see their recent actions and give them different access to the administration of the store in the case that you do not want some of them to access the orders, statistics, etc.

To create a new employee account, go to Administration > Employees. The Employees page lists all current employees with information about ID, Name, email address and profile. You can deactivate any employee by unchecking the box under Active, and edit employees with the "Edit" button. Now click "Add new employee" to start the progress.

Now you can create a new employee by giving the required information. Note that for the default page, you can give the employee a default location when he/she enters the back-end according to the part he/she is responsible for. Besides, the permission profile falls into 4 types that you can grant the new employee the role of SuperAdmin, Logistician, Translator or Salesman.

For the permissions included in each profile, you can make your own customization by visiting Administration > Permissions. Choose any profile (except SuperAdmin) in the list, edit it, and change the permissions as you want.

Configure Payment Gateways

You are meant to earn money from the online store, so you should now configure at least one payment method to accept payments. There are some pre-installed payment modules in PrestaShop which usually include Bank wire and payment by check. If you want some other gateways like PayPal and Authorize.NET, you can access Modules, find Payments and Gateways in the modules list and 1-click install them.

If you still want other gateways that are not listed in the screenshot above, you can download and install many options in PrestaShop add-on marketplace.

Configure Shipping Options

When you deal with the shipping options, the first thing you have to do is to configure the carriers who will deliver your products to your customers unless you only sell downloadable services. Using third-party delivery requires you to add the carriers' details to your database, so that consumers can make a choice depending on individual needs.

On the Shipping > Carriers page, you can enable or deactivate any carrier available, and change the details about it. "Add new carrier" will guide you to set up a new carrier manually. This process is a little bit complicated, so we recommend you using modules if you want some popular carriers like UPS and Fedex. Just search and install them in Modules.

After configuring the carriers, the second task you have to complete is to set the shipping options. As the shipping fee is calculated by either total price or product weight of an order, you need to configure the shipping information about each product first, which will help the calculation of the total price and weight, as well as the final shipping fee.

As soon as you enter the shipping configuration of a product, you can customize the package width, height, depth and weight, and decide whether addition shipping fee will be charged for this product. In addition, you are able to select certain carriers for the product's delivery.

You have done most tasks, and the last one is to handle the shipping preferences. If you want to offer free shipping when an order exceeds your standard on total price or weight, you only need to deal with Handling in Shipping > Preferences.

Choose Your Theme

The default design can fully meet basic needs, but you will need a more professional and premium PrestaShop theme to separate your store from numerous other shops online. There are thousands of choices on large marketplaces like ThemeForest, so you can choose one that will surely surprise your visitors and make them stay.

When using a new theme, read the documentation carefully to make sure not to miss the most significant features so as to make the most out of it. With a good theme, you are allowed to customize the header, image slider and many other aspects with more choices. More importantly, a responsive theme makes your store mobile-friendly.

Select Modules

Modules help extend the functionality of your store and easy the management. PrestaShop itself comes with more than 100 modules in the installation package, and what's better, there are numerous other choices in PrestaShop marketplace and many other third-party marketplaces.

Based on your real-time need, you can search on the web for the modules you demand to manage dashboard, checkout process, stats, advertising, marketing, merchandising, emailing, SEO, and many more. You are free to install PrestaShop modules as you like, but too many modules can harm website performance, so you'd better deactivate or even uninstall the unused modules. Besides, as a badly coded module may cause problems and even take down your site, remember to test any module and read reviews before using it.

Best Web Hosts for Hosting PrestaShop Websites

When selecting a web hosting package, you should choose one from a reliable and reputed company which provides you with sufficient resources, and is able to keep your website staying online and running fast all the time. It would be better if the company also offers a free domain name and some marketing credits.

If you are not a professional in web design and development, make sure that the web hosting package you choose includes security features like suPHP, shared SSL, password protected directories and OpenPGP/GPG encryption, which will help you maintain the security of your website.

There are thousands of web hosts supporting PrestaShop, but only a few of them are able to meet the requirements mentioned above. If you have not decided which web host to go yet, you can take a look at the following recommendations to see whether there is one company providing what you need. All the web hosts listed below provide not only all of the features needed, but also a money-back guarantee.


Marketingforall

Google Shopping, Nextag, and all the other great places online that will accept your product feed. Not only does this allow for more opportunities for sales, but you are expanding your audience and reach significantly and helping to get your product indexed by the major search engines.  Some of these sites require payment, while others have no charge associated with them.

Let your site shoppers know that you mean serious business.

Important pages to have:

  • FAQ – Avoid having to answer the common questions via email and direct shoppers to your FAQ page that answers those questions right away.
  • Return Policy – Not necessarily required by law, but showing that you have a return policy helps boost customer satisfaction and alleviate some of the confusion.  Tips on writing your return policy include avoid threatening words such as “We Refuse… or We will not be responsible…”, but rather keep it simple and clear as to what your policy on returns entails.
  • Privacy Policy – Make sure that your site visitors are aware that you do not intend to resell their contact information.  Some site visitors are extremely interested in how you intend to use the information they collect.  Being straight forward and honest with your intentions will help ease the shopper and encourage them to complete the sale online.

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Quality images &/or video

The quality of the images on your website is very important to help sell your product.

I highly recommend hiring a professional photographer for the quality images on your website.  However, in the event you are going to take pictures on your own, here are a few quick tips to help you out:

  • Use lots of light, but not direct lighting
  • Try to avoid shadows on your product
  • Use a white background
  • Take all product shots at the same time, using the same lighting and background
  • Use photo editing software such as PhotoShop to resize the images for web-use

Quality video is just as important.  Video helps site shoppers to get a feel for how the product can be used, or hear live testimonials on the product.  Post the videos on a number of video sharing sites such as YouTube or Vimeo.  Then share them on your social media networks.

Social media sharing buttons

With all of the sharing going on right now, why wouldn’t you want social media sharing buttons on each product page?  Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, Email to a Friend are all important to have tied to every product page for ease of sharing.

Utilize these social media channels to your advantage

  • Facebook – Create a Fan Page for your business/ecommerce website.  Facebook allows you to post images of your products and include a link in the description of the image that can take them right to that product page.
  • Twitter – Create a profile and include a link to your website in the bio line.  Utilize hashtags and lists to fine likeminded individuals who are interested in your products.
  • Google+ – Create a profile and then a page for your business.  Post images of your product, links to your product, online reviews of your product. Find individuals to follow and “Add to Circles” who can endorse, use, or promote your product.

Be upfront about additional costs

Read also: 7 Steps to Increasing Revenue Using Content Marketing

Don’t share the cost of shipping as the last step in the process, include those details right away.  Someone may be really jazzed up about buying your product, and then when they get to the last page find out its $50 to ship.  They may be very disappointed to leave the site without finalizing the order.  Letting the shopper know upfront what the cost associated with shipping (and other costs) is will help alleviate the shopping cart abandonment.

Read also: Writing an Article Effectively and Efficiently together with an Outline

Ask for the Sale

Adding those little “Buy Now” or “Add to Cart” buttons is important to your website.  It’s easy to use, it’s direct and helps the online shopper know what to do next.

Read also: 12 Simple Ways To Prepare Your Blog For SEO Succes


Marketingforall

For local businesses, online reviews matter.

So much so, in fact, that 72% of consumers won’t buy, visit or even contact your company without first checking your reviews. 70% need to see at least four reviews before trusting your brand, while 9 of 10 US customers say reviews are the most important part of the purchase decision.

And when it comes to reviews, few platforms have the level of impact or influence on customer behavior as Yelp.

Why are Yelp business reviews so important?

How to Manage Bad Yelp Business Reviews Shining Yelp Logo

Yelp gets nearly 180 million unique visitors across its PC, app and mobile versions every month, making it one of the most highly trafficked review platforms on the web. And a recent survey found that over 45% of local customers read Yelp business reviews before visiting your local company, second only to Google (64%) in terms of where online shoppers learn and research small businesses.

Another study found that businesses that claim and maintain their listing on Yelp see an average of $8,000 additional revenue from the platform every year, demonstrating how an active Yelp presence can benefit your bottom line.

That said, it’s also estimated that losing just one star from your overall Yelp rating can result in a 5% drop in revenue. And the worse your Yelp business review presence gets, the lower you can expect that number to go.

So, how do I deal with bad Yelp reviews?

How to Manage Bad Yelp Business Reviews Your Business is the Worst

Repairing the damage left by bad business reviews on Yelp requires an effective review management strategy that will mitigate their impact without undermining your brand and credibility. Whether you’re running a local insurance company or managing the diner down the street, the right Yelp review removal and response approach is essential to restoring your presence and strengthening your digital reputation.

If you’re one of the 32% of companies with a 3-star or lower rating, the time to act and improve your Yelp business reviews is now. The longer you let a bad review fester, the harder it gets to pick up the pieces.

Read more: How Twitter Can Increase Traffic To Your Website

How to manage bad Yelp reviews

A comprehensive Yelp review strategy is key to managing bad Yelp business reviews and improving your overall rating.

To manage your reviews effectively, your strategy should include elements of:

  • Yelp listing management
  • Yelp review removal
  • Yelp review response

Yelp listing management

How to Manage Bad Yelp Business Reviews Generic Yelp Listing

Dealing with bad Yelp reviews starts by managing your Yelp business listing.

Being a proactive Yelp listing manager not only helps take the chaos out of the review response process, but also makes it easier to understand customer interaction, improve engagement with your brand and pivot your strategy when the time is right.

To take control of your listing, you will first need to claim it.

How to claim your Yelp business page

How to claim your Yelp business page

Claiming your Yelp listing is a fast and fairly simple process:

  1. Visit the Yelp for business page and click ‘manage my free listing.’
  2. Locate your company by entering the zip code and name of your business.
  3. Enter an email and password to create your business account.
  4. Check your email for a verification code. Once received, enter that code in the prompt to verify your account.

Once you have successfully claimed your page, you can update your listing with photos, store hours, contact info and other basic info for customers to find when searching your business.

And now that you “own” that listing, you have a one-stop-shop for changing business details and combing through your Yelp business reviews at your convenience, putting you in a better position to manage negative comments and mitigate problems quickly and effectively.

Claiming your small business on Yelp can have numerous benefits, not the least of which is the chance to create a more attractive Yelp page for prospects to glean info and learn more about your local brand.

Surprisingly, however, only about 5 million businesses have officially claimed their Yelp listings, leaving many without a potentially powerful tool for connecting with consumers and sorting through customer reviews. For many, this may provide even more incentive to create an account and grab a crucial competitive advantage over those without an active Yelp presence.

Now that you know how to claim your Yelp listing, it’s time to learn another crucial aspect of managing bad Yelp business reviews.

Yelp review removal

How to Manage Bad Yelp B Business Reviews Rip Review

Yelp takes its role as a leading business review platform seriously, seeing itself as an important, if not essential, resource of business information for consumers around the world. Combine that with the site’s significant and increasing popularity among local customers, and Yelp is a bit reluctant to remove business reviews, making it difficult to take down comments hurting your brand’s reputation.

Can you delete a Yelp review?

Business owners don’t have the power to delete unflattering Yelp reviews on their own. In fact, the only way to delete Yelp business reviews is to be the reviewer in question and have access to your Yelp reviewer account. Once logged in, you simply need to sort through your reviews, choose the comment you want deleted and hit ‘Remove Review.’

But while deleting reviews is only available to Yelpers, it doesn’t mean you’re out of options. Much like other review platforms, Yelp offers a step-by-step process for removing malicious or defamatory reviews of your business

How to remove a Yelp business review

To request removal of a questionable review:

1. Log into your business account

You may log into your business account on your desktop, phone or via the Yelp mobile app.

2. Locate the review you want to remove

Visit the reviews section of your account to find the review in question.

3. Click on the More Options (…) tab

In the dropdown menu that appears, select the ‘Report Review’ option to flag the review.

Once you’ve reported the review, your request will be evaluated by a Yelp moderator, who will then compare the comment against Yelp’s content guidelines.

The moderator may choose to remove the review if:

How to Manage Bad Yelp Business Reviews Yelp Scientist

  • It is inappropriate. This includes any content containing harassment, threats, hate speech and other forms of bigotry.
  • It is biased or subjective. Reviews that are clearly written by business owners, employees, relatives, friends or competitors violate Yelp’s conflict-of-interest guideline.
  • It is too promotional. Any Yelp business reviews considered blatantly promotional (commercial) may be removed by Yelp moderators.
  • It is irrelevant. Posts that rant about politics, employment practices or anything else not central to the customer experience typically qualify as removable.
  • It contains private info. Reviews with people’s full names, personal info and “close-up” photos are good candidates for removal.
  • It is plagiarized. Content stolen from other users or websites is generally frowned on.
  • It demands payment. Any comments demanding compensation beyond a simple refund can be removed from the site.

According to Yelp, the evaluation process can take several days, though you can check on the status of your request at any time by moving your cursor over the flag next to the review. Yelp will notify you by email once they have reached a decision.

Of course, Yelp doesn’t have to remove a malicious review, even if it clearly violates the site’s Terms of Service and content guidelines. But more so than not, Yelp moderators will remove content that flagrantly disregards the rules.

Read more: How Your Marketing Team Should Nurture Based on Your Predictive Lead Scoring

What if Yelp doesn’t approve my removal request?

For whatever reason, if your removal request was denied, you may follow-up or appeal that decision with the Yelp Support team.

To do so:

  1. Copy the Case Number provided by Yelp in the initial request response.
  2. Visit the Yelp Support Center page and paste that number in the box provided.
  3. Add any questions you have about Yelp’s initial decision, as well as any new information you have regarding the review in question.
  4. Enter your email address and hit ‘Send.’

While not very likely, following-up on the original decision may breathe new life into your request, creating the need for additional analysis that could possibly turn things in your favor. You shouldn’t get your hopes up, but it doesn’t hurt to try.

So, what’s the next step? When removal comes up short or just isn’t an option, it’s time to move on to:

Yelp review response

You can’t always remove negative Yelp business reviews.

But what you can do is work to mitigate their impact, best done through a carefully planned review response strategy.

So, how can a plan for replying to bad Yelp reviews be good for your brand?

Well, for starters:

How to Manage Bad Yelp Business Reviews Evaluating Online Review

  • More than half of customers expect companies to reply to reviews within seven days.
  • Almost 90% of online shoppers read review replies during the research process.
  • 70% of consumers change their opinion about your business after you reply to a review.
  • Local customers spend nearly 50% more money at companies that reply to reviews.
  • Companies that reply to reviews at least 25% of the time average 35% more revenue.

As it turns out, replying to Yelp business reviews isn’t just good for managing bad online comments, but for managing your entire Yelp presence. Customers not only expect businesses to respond to reviews, but actually adjust their behavior and how they interact with your brand based on your responses (or lack thereof).

In turn, this has a direct and very real impact on your bottom line.

When done right, a good response strategy not only takes the wind out of bad reviews, but generates a whirlwind of goodwill that cultivates trust, demonstrates your commitment to customer service and helps transform your Yelp review presence into a (potentially) powerful source of revenue.

The question now is, how do you respond to a negative Yelp review, especially in a way that takes the steam out of its sails?

How to respond to a bad Yelp review

How to Manage Bad Yelp Business Reviews Dear Customer

There are numerous ways to reply to a bad Yelp business review. But developing a positive, measured approach to response is essential to preventing further issues and maximizing opportunity.

1. Respond quickly

More than 94% of customers say they have avoided a local business due to a bad review. And as we have already shown, over half of shoppers expect businesses to reply to negative reviews in a week or less.

More than anything else, these two statistics demonstrate the importance not only of dealing with bad reviews, but of doing so promptly. Tracking your Yelp reviews and making review replies a priority is key to minimizing the damage of negative information – and assuring online prospects you are committed to addressing problems and reviewer concerns as quickly as possible.

2. Address reviewers personally

Customers don’t just want to be heard; they want to be recognized. Addressing reviewers by name (when provided) and referencing their specific issue shows the value you place on their unique concerns, a highly-recommended alternative to the generic greetings (“Dear customer”) and form responses with little-to-no personal impact.

Talking to each customer by name should be baked into your Yelp response strategy.

3. Apologize, and take responsibility

Managing online reviews effectively means not only saying you’re sorry when things go awry, but also acknowledging the customer’s issue and owning the problem in your response, regardless of who is guilty.

Being contrite and avoiding excuses, even if the incident was exceedingly rare, demonstrates your commitment to high standards and to delivering a great customer experience. Making this approach automatic in each reply also helps avoid the blame game and online escalation that can worsen the issue.

4. Set things right

Doing what you can to make things right isn’t just a core principle of Customer Service 101. It’s also a strong de-escalation tactic you should include in each review reply.

Communicating any changes, improvements or solutions you’ve implemented due to their feedback helps assure you understand the reviewer’s problem, take it seriously and are doing everything possible to avoid it from happening again.

5. Find a solution offline

Offer to speak with the customer and resolve the issue offline. Include your name and business contact info in your reply to resolve the problem elsewhere and reassure the reviewer their experience truly matters to your brand.

Of course, most reviewers probably won’t make the effort. But including the offer in each Yelp business review reply helps reinforce the idea that you really do mean business.

Read more: 5 SEO Tips for Start-up Websites


Marketingforall

Planning for an E-commerce website? E-commerce websites are the most potential and profitable technique to urge sales across the country. it’s almost like having a physical store in a market with the only distinction that it’s available on the internet. An E-commerce store will much sell to anyone who needs your services or product. Going with the data & information, in the US, the average E-commerce revenue per online shopper was found to be $1,932, which is the largest as compared to the average shopper expenditure of the other countries. An E-commerce website can only boost the capability of your offline business but only if you are doing it strategically. you can able to reach out to specialists to assist you with the development of an E-commerce store or can even develop yourself. Whether you select a technique or the other, you wish to create a checklist for all the essentials that the area unit required whereas designing, developing, or implementing the website. Perhaps you might find enterprise applications development useful.

1: Translation of business needs

A clear business goal typically ranks particularly the opposite factors of e-commerce development. an e-commerce website is nothing but the illustration of your business goals. only a clearly outlined e-commerce business has the flexibility to sell products and services with a nice ease. keep in mind to mark off this point before you even proceed!

2: Domain name and hosting

Coming to the technical aspects, the associate E-commerce website is hardly attainable without its distinctive domain name, that signifies the name of the website, and hosting that makes the website, carry on the internet. You need to book a unique nonetheless catchy name for your website and enough hosting area for the source codes and files. This is often the primary technical step that you simply need to accomplish

3: Competitive analysis

Competition always comes with an E-commerce website, no matter what your business domain could be. It is necessary to analyze the business competition and understand what’s already being offered on the web. If you will be able to contribute a lot of what’s already being offered then you may positively win the show

4 Creative web interface

The computer program is always an important part while starting with E-commerce. Guests should stay, that is necessary for your business and only an interactive interface can do that effectively. You’d need to hire a skilled graphic designer for this task, as they will assist you with the artistic & creative implementation.

5: Brand logo

Does having a logo really help? this can be a matter that the majority of e-commerce startups ask. always bear in mind that a brand is known through its logo particularly during this digital age once the exposure is huge. A well-crafted logo creates a separate identity for your business and it’s established to line you apart when your brand becomes more fashionable.

6: Cross-browser compatibility

Would you like your users to operate your website on each & every browser? visitors may come back to your website from any browser, like Ex- Chrome, Firefox, or internet explorer.

Your website must be compatible with each & every browser in order to retain the most potential traffic. For this, you should ensure cross-browser compatibility…

7: Website security

Security could be a feature that pays off well in the future and it must be kept as a priority. all of your hard work will go vain if your website will be simply hacked or attacked upon. Ensure that the server you select is secure enough to keep your data & information. you may also hire professional E-commerce web development services to accomplish this step for you.


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دفتر وکالت و خدمات حقوقی علمی مشاوره مالیاتی تهران فروشگاه gtf2 ایران پوکر Sr digital marketing افرا رام زیرنویس دانلود فایل