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Affiliate Marketing: How it Transforms Your Ecommerce Business

Category: Growth Hacks

PayTabs
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

Affiliate-Marketing-How-it-Transforms-Your-Ecommerce-Business

Affiliate marketing has proven its worth in promoting businesses. This concept is now being applied to online endeavors as well. Affiliate marketing involves using the brute force of individuals or companies to sell the products endorsed by them. Influencers may use various media such as videos, mobiles, social media and blog for promoting the products and services. These affiliates earn commissions as and when a person buys the products promoted by them. Here are some of the ways you can use this trend for promoting your e-commerce business. 

  1. Create a Niche Market: Affiliate marketing can be effectively used for creating a niche market for your business. This is done by increasing customer stickiness and loyalty. If you are using a social media celebrity as your endorser then they are likely to bring their fan following. Such followers generally are easily convertible into loyal patrons for the promoted products. It also helps you in creating a particularly targeted image of your product and business. This feature is especially helpful if you are introducing a novel product in the market.  
  2. Indirect Sales Promotion: Affiliate marketing can help you build your own sales promotion team without incurring hefty expenditures. With this indirect sales team, you can reap the benefits of an actual sales team and then some more. Affiliate marketing has proven to be highly successful in boosting the traffic to targeted websites. This in turn is helpful in expanding the scope of your marketing and adding to the revenue. Apart from generating higher traffic, affiliate marketing is helpful in improving the quality of traffic as well. This type of targeted promotion improves the conversion, offering you better bang for your advertising buck. Further, it is also more convenient to customize and alter affiliate marketing tools to suit the ever changing requirements of online businesses.  
  3. Economical: One of the most appealing features of affiliate marketing is its economy. Affiliate marketing does not require hefty outlay of funds as it does not require funding massive ad campaigns. It is also relatively simple to start and operate. Such marketing technique is highly concentrated thus ensures that you are able to tap your target market without spending an exorbitant amount of money. Affiliate marketing requires payment only when the sale is generated. This ensures that such projects have high return on investment in comparison to the investment made in traditional marketing channels. You can also design your commission tier system in such a way so as to ensure that each penny works the hardest for your brand. 
  4. Harness User Generated Content:  Employing user generated content for promotional purpose is amongst one of the hottest trends in the e-commerce segment. Affiliate marketing offers you ample opportunities to integrate user generated content to your sales promotion material. The scope of user generated content is ever increasing as more and more people rely upon social media for getting information about the products. These online information portals also provide reviews of the products which are then used by potential customers for making their purchase decisions. User generated content is important as it is a highly economical way of spreading awareness about your products and offerings.  However, you should be proactive to maintain appropriate quality of user generated content. 
  5. Choose Wisely and Track: While affiliate marketing can serve all types of businesses, it is important that you pay careful attention while choosing such channels. There is a wide range of such programs available, each of which caters to specific types of ventures. For this purpose, it is important to be clear about your end objective. You should also be clear about your target niche market, so that you can choose appropriate affiliate marketing channel. Some of the most prominent affiliate marketing channels currently available are Rakuten, Amazon Associates and Jex Ads among others. Once the selection and implementation is done, it is equally important to have proper tracking systems installed.  

Affiliate marketing has come a long way and offers a wide range of options. For optimal performance, affiliate marketing may be integrated with traditional marketing tools. However, affiliate marketing has high potential as a standalone technique as well due to its high versatility.

5 years ago
PayTabs
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

How-to-Simplify-Invoicing-and-Billing

Invoicing is an important function in an organization as an efficient system ensures that the bills are collected promptly, leading to better liquidity in the market. Simplified invoicing system also ensures that your clients are assured that they are billed correctly. Integrated payment technologies may be used for this purpose of simplifying the process. Whether you run a small business or a big one, it is important that your invoicing and billing process is smooth and timely. Here are some of the pointers which may help you in simplifying the entire process. 

Fix the Terms: In order to simplify the process, it is important that the organization has clear terms and conditions related to invoicing. Once you have set the terms, you can proceed with communicating these terms to your clients so that there is no ambiguity on this front. Some of the most important variables which should be covered under the terms are the duration of billing i.e. whether the billing will be done on project basis or hourly basis and the duration within which the invoice is required to be paid. Further, the terms which need to be fulfilled before the payment is made should be included. 

Automate the Process: With the easy and economic availability of various tools, it is easier than ever to automate the process of invoicing. The process involves the transfer of data from invoices to electronic system and thereafter carrying out the task of interpreting and validating the invoices. Some of the other aspects of the process are approvals, payments, resolution and storage. The investment in Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP systems tends to pay for itself in a short duration of time as it brings about efficiency in operations. With the elimination of manual intervention, the firm can optimize its human resources. 

Choose Appropriate Payment Options: In order to keep your billing and invoicing process simple, it is essential that you choose your payment options carefully. With a plethora of options available, it has become more difficult for vendors to keep track. The businesses should ensure that they fully balance the pros and cons of providing a range of payment options to their clients. While it is imperative that you offer a wide variety of payment options so that your clients are assured of ease and convenience, it is also important that the selection is kept at a manageable level. The offering of multiple payment channels is also expected to boost your liquidity and reduce the chances of defaults. 

Integrate Different Variables: Invoices comprise a wide range of variables which may make the entire process complicated and time consuming. The integration of these facets are helpful in ensuring the efficiency. You can start by using integration tools for aggregating the expenses incurred for a particular project or a job. Such integration also helps in exercising proper control over expenses and thus keeping the project on a proper path. Timely integration of expenses ensures that you are able to send the invoice in a prompt manner. 

Pay Attention to Analytics: It is essential to keep proper track of your invoicing system. Once the system is automated, it becomes a lot easier to gather the data and then to compare it against the set standards to find out the deviations. There are several tools available for the purpose of collecting such data and then analyzing it. Various aspects such as time tracking solutions may help in making the process more efficient by providing relevant data. Time tracking solution is especially helpful in improving the productivity by generating detailed reports. These reports provide better communication to the clients about the progress of work and thus render invoicing more helpful to them. Analytics are also useful for the purpose of forecasting, which is helpful in planning. 

Overall, the importance of efficient billing and invoicing cannot be overemphasized. The automated invoicing process may be augmented by the addition of terms and conditions such as levy of penalty in case of late payments. The combination of such online and offline measures helps in making the system more amenable to your business. The installation of such system may require significant amount of resources in the beginning but it proves to be more efficient in the long run. 

5 years ago
PayTabs
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

 5-Common-Payment-Processing-Challenges-Small-Businesses-Face

Small businesses face many unique challenges such as problems related to payment processing. This issue can manifest itself in a variety of ways and thus requires careful intervention. It is crucial that a small business takes proper care of its payment processing system to ensure that there is timely and accurate collection of the payments due. Identification of different problems is one of the most important steps in this process, so here is the list of the top payment processing issues a small business may have to face: 

Data Security: With the increase in instances of cyber attacks and data frauds, it has become essential for a business to protect itself and its clients from such mishaps. An efficient payment processing system should provide robust protection against such data breaches. Any such fraud or leaking of important data can not only negatively impact the revenue and income of a business, it may also put strain on their position in the market. The businesses should ensure that their payment processing system adheres to Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS). Such compliance saves you and your business from liabilities which may arise from data breaches. 

Chargebacks: These expenses are one of the biggest challenges faced by the businesses with regard to their payment processing systems. Chargebacks are also known as processing fees and can form a big chunk of your overall expenses. There are many factors which influence such chargebacks. Some of the main causes which impact the volume of chargebacks are types of payment options, types of cards used and the size of transactions. Different types of businesses may be levied different types of charges. It is important to remain in constant touch with your providers so that you are aware of different chargebacks. Further, you may also try to negotiate the prices down. Such management of charges can have significant impact on your bottom line. 

Compliance and Regulations: As payment processing systems are becoming more complex, the regulatory requirements are also increasing to keep a proper check on them. These regulations are mainly enacted to safeguard all the parties involved in the payment processing cycle. However, these also tend to increase the paperwork. It is important that you comply with all the requirements laid by these regulations so as to ensure that you have proper recourse as and when there is any issue pertaining to such payments. The outlay required for meeting these rules is generally justified by the benefits granted through these regulations. 

Multi Channel Payments: In order to ensure that you are able to serve your clients in the best possible manner, it is important to offer a wide range of payment options. However, it also means that you have to deal with the terms and conditions attached with large number of such outlets. Multiple vendors may increase the complexity of your payment systems which may require increased outlay of resources. It is generally advisable to integrate such option payments so that they can be managed with relative ease. Further, the ability to control these multiple methods may also increase the efficiency of your operations. 

Payment Support and Integration: As payment processing is one of the most crucial functions, it is important that the business pays proper attention to this facet. The businesses should endeavor to keep the downtime to the minimal. There should also be proper backup system, so that your clients do not have to face any hardship if there is any breakdown in the services. You should define such terms and conditions with your service provider explicitly. The integration of various modes of payment and processing systems is important for ensuring efficiency. It is also helpful in keeping the costs down. Such integration allows for the installation of a dashboard which helps in centralizing the control measures. 

It is highly recommended to businesses that they pay proper attention to their payment processing systems. They should also be careful while selecting their payment services partners. The main focus should be on managing costs and expanding the portfolio of services offered. It is also important that the system is flexible so that it can accommodate frequent changes in technologies employed.  

5 years ago
PayTabs
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

Accept Online-Payments-Globally

Online businesses are fast becoming the norm and the ability to accept global online payments is one of the prerequisites for this type of business. There are multiple channels available for facilitating the online payment process. Before settling upon a particular channel, it is imperative that the business makes proper assessment of all the available options, evaluating them on different criterions. Further, there are other choices to be made such as deciding whether to set up in-house payment processing system or to opt for a third party vendor for specialized services. Following are some of the pointers in this regard: 

Rise in Online Payments: As eCommerce is becoming more and more prevalent, the volume of online payments is also rising. There is particular increase in the number of mobile payments as people are now gravitating more towards the use of internet on their phones. As per a report released by Price Waterhouse Cooper, the number of people choosing mobile shopping increased multifold between 2011 and 2017. While mobile payment is on the rise, people still use a variety of methods to make online payments. Therefore, it is important that your business offers a wide range of online payment options to the clients.  

Accept Debit and Credit Cards Online: Giving the facility of making the payment through debit or credit cards is one of the most basic services provided by an online business. For this purpose, you may have to open a dedicated merchant account. Alternatively, you may also choose to use an intermediary holding account. All these options come with their own pros and cons. Therefore, it is important that you carefully consider all the scenarios to reach at a conclusion. The most widely used credit card brands are Visa, MasterCard and American Express. However, there are several other credit card brands available as well. It is important to ensure that the clients are provided with the largest possible options for online payment. 

Go Mobile: Mobile payments are increasing at a faster rate than the overall rise in online payments. As the future belongs to mobile internet, it is imperative that your website allows for mobile payments. Mobile payments can take place in a variety of ways such as typing in a credit card number or swiping a card or dipping a chip card on a mobile device. You can offer these services through an app and the same app may allow you several other benefits such as accessing cash flow reports and dispatching invoices. As more and more people start using smartphones, mobile payments are all set to increase in their scope.  

Choose an Online Payment Gateway: In order to make it convenient for your clients to make online payments, you may simply add a payment form to your website. The form may be amended to provide the facility of storing data so that your recurring clients are not required to add information every time they place an order. This work may also be outsourced to companies which provide specialized services such as secure processing of the payments and hosting the payment form. Further, you may also customize the payment processing procedures to meet the specific requirements of your business and your clients. These services have the additional benefit of providing you the online destination which you may use for promotional purposes. 

As eCommerce widens its scope, the newer methods of making and receiving online payments are being introduced at a fast pace. To offer the best to your clients, it is important that you constantly update your online payment alternatives. Apart from ensuring that these methods are safe and secure, it is important that you pay due attention to the speed of processing as well.  

5 years ago
PayTabs
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

Digital Payments: Safer during Emergency and Crisis

Online shopping and digital payments have become an integral part of modern lifestyle. These payments offer a wide range of options and make life easier for customers. However, this modern invention gains even more relevance in the times of emergencies and catastrophe. Whether it is a natural disaster in the form of floods or earthquake or it is the outbreak of a fatal disease, the facility of making digital payments can make surviving crisis more manageable. Here are some of the ways digital payments may be used for crisis management.

Avoid the Spread of Infection: Online shopping is a viable option to displace regular shopping where you need to step out of the safety zone of your house and expose yourself to elements. This feature is especially useful in the case of infectious outbreaks such as the spread of a virus. In these cases, the germs are generally spread through exposure to these pathogens. However, with the help of online shopping, you can avoid unnecessary outdoor trips. On one hand, the use of online shopping will work towards limiting your exposure to foreign elements. On the other hand, the chances of you catching any such infection are also greatly reduced. If there is any outbreak or there is any other disaster, then meet all your urgent requirements by going for online shopping than stepping out.

Stock up On Your Daily Requirements: Access to online shopping and digital payment also enhances your market reach. You are no longer dependent upon your local market or store for buying stuff. Even if your local markets have run out of items including food items and other necessities, you can order essentials from online sites. Such sites may be within your country or even global , thus increasing availability of such items. With online shopping, you can also avoid complications such as hoarding as you can simply order the items as and when you want to instead of hoarding them.

No requirement to Rush to the Bank: During crisis, it is important to maintain liquidity so that you can meet expenses as and when they arise. However, during such times, it may not be convenient or even possible to visit your bank to withdraw money. In these circumstances, it is vital to have access to modes of digital payments. You can combine online shopping and digital payments to survive these catastrophic times. Even if you have to undertake offline transactions, digital payment methods such as the use of wallets may be made for paying for these dealings. The convenience of such payments can make it a lot easier for you to go through difficult times.

Donate to Good Causes: Crisis times call for cooperation and the pooling of funds. You can use online payment methods to donate to various charities helping people prevail in such times. Digital payments create novel ways to manage funds. The use of crowdfunding for sourcing money which is to be used for welfare and rescue measures is one such innovation. You can donate to charities through net banking or credit cards, thus helping other people. In other cases, you may be the recipient of such funds as these methods allow you to receive funds even from far off places.

Reduce Exposure to Currency: Online shopping and digital payments can greatly reduce the stress during crisis times. However, it is still very important to protect yourself against infections and other emergency issues. In order to curb the spread of viruses, you should practice proper hygiene by carefully washing your hands and avoid unnecessary contact with others. You should also make liberal use of cleaning agents such as hand sanitizers and cleaning wipes. These precautions should be used while handling cash as well since coins and notes may carry  germs. You can try curtailing your exposure to currency by using digital payment methods. However, in the circumstances, when you cannot avoid contact with currency, then you should try to limit your exposure by using gloves and other protective mediums. You should also use sanitizers before and after handling cash.

Digital payments are a blessing during crises.

5 years ago