by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Business, Emerging Businesses, Finding Customers, Marketing Basics, Markets, Medium Enterprise, Online Marketing, Sales, SMEs, Technology
By Anurag Avula,
Diwali is a great time to start your new online business or to take your existing business online.
So what is your next step? You’ve created your online store, taken some amazing photos of your products and activated an appropriate payment platform. Congratulations, you are up and running. Now you just need to sit back and wait for the customers to come pouring in, right?
Well, yes, in an ideal world — but with the explosion of growth in e-commerce, you still need to make your store stand out from the crowd, grab your customers’ attention, hold it and keep them returning for more. Here are five golden rules to start a successful business this Diwali.
1. Make your site clear and simple to use: When a customer reaches your site it should be obvious what you sell. Use a clean and professional template design that is simple in its message. Don’t allow the customer to be distracted by countless and un-needed information. Show your most popular and best-selling products first as a way to draw people in to start exploring your site. Consider using a “carousel” picture collage so that they can easily scroll through the images and see what’s on offer.
2. It’s the little extras that make a big difference: Free shipping, great returns policy (or free returns over a certain purchase value), a toll free number — making use of incentives to attract users is a great way to encourage loyalty. If you are able to offer these great advantages, make sure you shout about them loud and clear on your homepage.
3. Testimonials and reviews: Take one of your glowing references and put it somewhere obvious on your homepage. If you can accompany this with a picture, it reinforces the fact that real people trust and use your products and services. Customer reviews are trusted 12 times more than marketing by a company
4. Daily deals and other discounts: Daily deals are another hugely popular idea. By selling a limited quantity of products for a short amount of time you can generate new interest and increase your client base. Once you have drawn them in — invite them to preview your other products.
5. Make a connection: Try to re-think your site as a content site that happens to sell products. Talk to your customers as you would to a friend and engage them so that they keep coming back for more. If you can demonstrate that you are passionate about your products and give tips and ideas on ways to use them, such as a demonstration video or a pinboard using your products, it adds more value to your site.
(Anurag Avula is the CEO of goshopmatic.com. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at anurag@goshopmatic.com)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Entrepreneurship, Muslim World, Success Stories
Rabat : The Institut Choiseul for International Politics and Geo-economics has named eight Moroccans in its 2017 ranking of African economic “leaders of tomorrow.”
This list, published yearly by the Paris-based institute, identifies and ranks successful entrepreneurs and business leaders aged 40 and under, who it says to play a significant role in pursuing Africa’s international ambitions, Morocco World News reported.
With the help of many observers across the continent, the liberal think-tank ranks the selected profiles based on their “image and reputation, path and skills, power and function, influence and networks, potential and leadership.”
The high presence of Moroccan managers and entrepreneurs in the institute’s latest ranking makes the kingdom the second-most represented country, behind Nigeria, and ahead of Kenya, South Africa, and Cameroon.
Badr Alioua, Saad Sefrioui, and Marouane Ameziane were also listed in last year’s ranking. “[The 100 leaders listed] are the ones who make things happen and whose enthusiasm and dynamism pull their entire continent on the way to success,” said Pascal Lorot, the president of Choiseul Institut, in a press release.
—SM/IINA
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Finance, Investing, Large Enterprise, Markets, News
Chennai : Housing mortgage lender LIC Housing Finance Ltd on Friday said it will be raising about Rs 55,000 crore through issuing non-convertible debenture this year for business purposes.
“We will be raising Rs 55,000 crore issuing non-convertible debentures this year. Till August we have raised Rs 17,000 crore,” Managing Director & CEO Vinay Sah told reporters here.
He was here to inaugurate the company’s 20th edition of ‘Ungal Illam’, an exclusive property fair.
According to Sah, the company is logging a growth of around 15 per cent this fiscal with the retail segment continuing to register growth.
Queried about the impact of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA) on home purchase decisions and consequently on the company, Sah said some prospective buyers are adopting a ,wait and watch’ policy.
He said the demand from those who are buying for investment purposes has gone down while those who buy for self-occupation continue to make their purchases.
Sah said people are waiting to see the prices of housing units to drop following RERA but the prices are neither going up or down.
He said there is some slowdown in the registration of new projects.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Business, Finding Customers, Large Enterprise, Markets, Technology
Beijing/San Francisco : Google is reportedly considering to acquire the struggling Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC’s phone business, media reported.
According to a report in the Chinese publication Commercial Times, Google is considering two options to seal the deal with HTC that is reportedly building Google’s “Pixel 2” line of smartphones.
Google is reportedly planning to “either become a strategic partner, or outright buy the entire smartphone unit”, phonearena.com reported on Friday citing Commercial Times.
However, HTC’s virtual reality business (HTC Vive) would not be part of the deal.
The news led to HTC posting its lowest revenue in over a decade on Thursday.
HTC, now in a bad financial health, was once very popular in the US but has not done well for quite some time even after launching flagship devices.
The Google Pixel and Pixel XL devices were also manufactured by HTC.
Both Google and HTC have declined to comment on the report.
If the deal materialises, it would be second such acquisition after Google’s $12.5 billion buyout of Motorola in 2012.
The search giant later sold it off to Lenovo for $2.91 billion in 2014.
In July, HTC unveiled its premium flagship smartphone HTC U11 in India at Rs 51,990 which is touted to have the highest-rated smartphone camera in the world.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, World
Washington : The US is considering stopping “all trade” with any country doing business with North Korea, US President Donald Trump has said in a tweet.
The US President’s threat on Sunday came after North Korea’s official media has announced that the country had successfully detonated a hydrogen bomb capable of being carried by an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), Xinhua news agency reported.
In an earlier tweet, Trump called the words and actions of North Korea “very hostile and dangerous” to the US.
Trump also said he will be meeting with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and other military leaders at the White House to discuss the North Korea issue.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Sunday, expressing firm opposition to and strong condemnation of the nuclear test by North Korea.
“North Korea has ignored the international community’s widespread opposition and conducted a nuclear test again. The Chinese government expresses resolute objection to and strong condemnation of it,” the ministry’s statement said.
—IANS
