Souce: Xinhuafinance.com

For people who consider themselves as “not very technologically savvy�? eCommerce might seem like a crazy, difficult idea to wrap your head around. Because eCommerce is based in virtual transactions over the internet, the eCommerce market might feel like it is only created by and for the high-tech millennial generation.

What if we told you that instead of thinking of eCommerce as “electronic commerce�? the “e�?can also stand for “easy�? Recent technological advancements in eCommerce can open the doorway to more disparate markets.

Though the U.S. is mostly an urban-dominated nation today, roughly 40 million Americans still live in rural areas. Worldwide, the number of rural residents balloons to 5 billion. Everyone has to buy things, so it’s no secret that there is great financial opportunity in providing easy and convenient shopping to the billions of people living in non-urban environments.

On August 3,Quartz reported that companies expanding their repertoire to meet the consumer needs of rural markets are winning big. China already has the world’s biggest audience of digital buyers – 407.6 million people, compared to America’s 171.8 million – and it is expected to add another 139 million by 2019 as internet access expands to less urban areas. Although rural Chinese residents don’t have the same amount of disposable income as their urban counterparts, they spend nearly as much online purchases.Their top product categories for online shopping include apparel, tea, food, and cosmetics, which are similar to the categories purchased by the younger urban market.

So how can you expand your small-town or rural eCommerce audience? Like any successful business, the key remains a good relationship with your consumers, even if they’re thousands of miles away.

According to The Economic Times, which studied Amazon’s small-town growth around the world, the key is integrating your company and values with those of the communities you are selling to, not enforcing them. Don’t transplant your capital in the middle of a village – use current residents as deliverers or managers to ensure consumers feel at home with your company. Monitor the situation closely, as eCommerce is still a new and foreign concept to many, to see how spending habits or perceptions differ between that of big cities. Finally, understand that rural economies are far less predictable, so keep your mind open to new business models for these new markets.

If you do all that, you just might have 5 billion new customers.

The post Expanding mCommerce beyond traditional markets appeared first on 雷技信息科技（上海）有限公司.

Source: Facebook

Facebook’s latest updates could change this entire eCommerce experience.The social media giant recently announced several updates to the platform, including allowing eCommerce retailers to embed Facebook Messenger into the shopping process. Facebook Messenger is the company’s instant messaging platform feature, which allows people to directly message (DM) each other. For mobile users, Facebook Messenger is also a separate app. Zulily and Everlane  are already piloting the feature.

Sound familiar? Thousands of businesses have already been using social media for customer service and it has worked very well for them. Twitter is a common site for companies to improve support, quickly resolve problems, and keep customers happy. Businesses have also used their own Facebook pages as communication platforms. It comes as no shock that Facebook would want to capitalize on Messenger’s potential.

This new integration opens up a world of possibilities for retailers looking for easier ways to connect and interact with their customers:

• 

  Source: Facebook

  After submitting an order to a retailer with the Messenger function, customers can select to sync their order with their Facebook identity. This will bring information of their order into a message thread between the customer and the business.

• Customers can receive (almost) real-time shipping information and updates in Messenger
• Retailers can address questions during the actual shopping experience
• Clicking on the message will allow consumers to change or cancel their order or view order details.
• If a customer wants to add or change an item in your order, it’s as easy as typing in the request in the message! Because the customer’s ordering, billing, and shipping information are synced with the consumer’s Facebook identity, retailers can quickly and efficiently fulfill requests.

What makes Facebook Messenger’s integration with eCommerce noteworthy and significant for consumers? First off, it demonstrates a move away from traditional, messy email communication and makes it easier for consumers to shop online. Whether it is from a desktop or you’re one of the 79% of smartphone owners who use a mobile device to assist with shopping, being able to complete the shopping experience as painlessly as possible is very important. Plus, Messenger is an app that most people already use; it’s not another app or channel that a consumer will have to download and learn to use.

Next, Facebook is familiar. It’s a great way to interact with a growing population of people who already use it to talk to people, so why not use it to also interact with brands?

To add to that, Messenger is immediate. A study by Forrester found that �?4% of online consumers say that having questions answered by a live person while in the middle of an online purchase is one of the most important features a website can offer.�?Yes, almost half of all online consumers want help from a live person while they’re shopping online right when they have a question. Unanswered questions mean the consumer abandon their cart and go to another business, which means losing a sale for your online store.

Plus, there is room for brands to customize Messenger and make it their own. Messenger can be integrated with the company’s own mobile app (if they have one). Retailers can share videos and product photos with consumers easily in a message. Consumers can then turn around and easily share the content with their own group of friends or on their social media wall. Sharing the brand’s image could become a new sales and business avenue for your online business.

As cool as Facebook Messenger’s new functionality may seem, there are people who aren’t as enthusiastic about this new level of communication. For some, it is a matter of privacy – giving a social platform like Facebook potential access to personal financial information might be unsettling. Additionally, it’s highly likely that targeted advertisements based on shopping interests or purchased items will make their way into this system. Retailers could potentially shell a lot of money in paid advertisements to get access to this personalized shopping experience.

It’s hard to say at the moment how successful Facebook Messenger’s eCommerce customer service will be. But one thing’s for sure: Facebook is helping to change the conversation around eCommerce and mobile marketing.

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Logic Solutions can help you strategize your eCommerce and mCommerce game plans. Find out how you can have a beautiful, functional frontend and a powerful backend to support your business needs.

Let us help you

Jennifer Pan is Logic’s Marketing Coordinator. By day she is a mild-mannered Logician blogging about tech trends and designing WordPress sites. By night (and weekends), she swordfights and performs stuntwork with Ring of Steel Action Theatre.

The post Facebook Brings eCommerce Customer Service to Messenger appeared first on 雷技信息科技（上海）有限公司.

Of these four technologies, there are five broad categories of mobile payment systems:

• Mobile at the point of sale
• Mobile as the point of sale
• Mobile payment platform
• Direct mobile billing
• Closed loop mobile payments

Here is a closer examination of what each of these five categories are and their pros and cons.

Mobile At The Point Of Sale

Source: Mobile Marketing Magazine

Also known as the “mobile wallet�? this system allows customers to pay for things at a store with a mobile device using NFC technology, or the “Tap and Go�?method, via WAP. Examples include Google Wallet, Isis, MasterCard, Visa, and Apple Pay.

• Pros:
  • Most smartphones are now NFC-equipped
  • Quick, easy, contactless payment method
  • More secure than just swiping a credit card through a reader
• Cons:
  • Privacy concerns: because these mobile wallets often store credit card information in their systems, there has been questions of exactly how easy (or difficult) it is to hack the security. Additionally, there are questions of whether or not the company of the mobile wallet system are able to read the credit card information.
  • Mobile wallets are also slow to gain traction because 1) there are so many different kinds of systems, 2) there is no universal reader yet that will be able to read every app, and 3) they rely on cooperation between credit card companies, banks, mobile manufacturers, and mobile networks. Apple Pay has encountered some resistance by merchants looking to align themselves with CurrentC as their primary mobile payment option.

Mobile As The Point Of Sale

Source: Square

In this instance, the smartphone is used as a cash register, and does not require the consumer to be responsible for having a mobile payment system. The merchant uses a mobile device to process credit card payments. Popular examples include Square and VeriFone.

• Pros:
  • As a cheap and easy alternative to the cash register, these mobile payment systems are credit card-based, thereby avoiding the mobile wallet war.
  • It is convenient for small businesses that can’t afford cash registers and credit card processors.
  • Square, the most popular example, bundles all credit card feeds (bank, the card company, and the processor) into one single fee. This way, merchants don’t have to worry about paying three separate fees to three separate companies.
• Cons:
  • Processing fees might not be more competitive to traditional processors. Square takes a 2.75% off all transactions (and in some cases 3.50%), which is higher than most credit card companies.
  • It is not ideal for all businesses, especially those that are larger and bring in larger revenue.
  • Businesses that have abnormal processing behaviors or revenues that come in waves may trigger a red flag with Square’s fraud detection system, which could delay payments from reaching the merchant’s bank account.
  • Additionally, since it is still credit card-based, this does not provide a solution to the problem of credit card and identity theft.

Mobile Payment Platform

Source: Silicon Angle

This is a catch-all category for mobile payment systems that do not resemble the mobile wallet or using the smartphone as a cash register. Merchants can use WAP technology on mobile devices or consumers can send money to each over via a peer-to-peer WAP system. This catch-all category usually uses WAP payments to either charge the phone bill, the credit card, or through an online wallet. Examples include PayPal, Dwolla, and Serve.

• Pros:
  • Credit card and/or bank information is usually security-encoded and doesn’t require consumers to physically have the credit card on hand.
  • It is an increasingly popular alternative to SMS payments.
• Cons:
  • Like all mobile payment systems, it can be a target of possible cyber warfare.
  • Credit card or bank fees still apply

Direct Mobile Billing

Source: Angry Birds

Colloquially known as “put it on my phone bill�? charges are placed on the cell phone bill via in-app billing or through text messages via SMS. Examples include ringtones or games like Angry Birds.

• Pros:
  • SMS is a technology available in older cell phone models, so consumers do not need a smartphone to be able to purchase products
  • It is quick and easy to use.
  • There are no passwords, usernames, or log in needed like the other mobile payment systems. Credit card numbers and bank information are also not needed, which helps to alleviate security concerns as personal information is never transferred or given to a third-party.
  • Billing is handled entirely by the mobile service provider, so consumers don’t need to worry about additional bills to watch for every month.
• Cons:
  • “Put it on my phone bill�?is mostly used for purchasing digital content. It is very uncommon to see in-app billing or SMS payments used in traditional brick-and-mortar stores for non-digital products.
  • SMS often incurs a high and costly fee, and has been known to be slow in speed and unreliable.

Closed Loop Mobile Payments

Starbucks’ Christmas Bokeh by Piero Fissore

Okay, so this really isn’t anything like the traditional mobile wallet. Instead, closed loop mobile payments are more like a mobile version of the store credit card. The store company itself builds their own digital wallet and mobile payment platform system. A very successful example of this is Starbucks. Like a debit-card, consumers load up the app with money and use it toward their future purchases. These digital store credit cards can also save store coupons, track gift cards, and handle loyalty-rewards programs, thereby potentially saving the consumer lots of space in their physical wallet.

• Pros:
  • You save a lot of space in your wallet, which is especially attractive for people who can’t keep track of weekly store coupons.
  • It has the convenience of being a mobile payment system
  • All personal credit card or bank information that is used to load the store credit card can be done in the safety of your own home. This sensitive information is not transferred to the merchant at the point of purchase.
• Cons:
  • Although Starbucks has seen great success with their store credit card, it is a success that isn’t guaranteed to be replicable in other business models.
  • Adding money to the card requires an “extra step�?that could be too much of a hassle for some consumers.
  • Because it is “just another app�? store credit cards face competition from other mobile payment types.

Customized eCommerce Solutions

Logic Solutions can help you with your eCommerce and mCommerce strategy, development, implementation, and support. Find out how you can have a beautiful, functional frontend and a powerful backend to support your business needs.

Let us help you

Jennifer Pan is a marketing coordinator at Logic Solutions. If you want to get her attention, try talking to her about d20s, (board) games, sci-fi and geeky references, or cute animal videos…or all of them at once. Just don’t bring up her uncanny ability to roll natural 1s.

The post Comparison of Mobile Payment Types appeared first on 雷技信息科技（上海）有限公司.

Source: Silicon Angle

Forget cash and credit cards. Mobile payments are here to help keep your wallets slim and (hopefully) secure.

Consumers, particularly those in parts of Europe and Asia, have made purchases with cellphones for the past decade. However, these mobile payments are only starting to go  mainstream, and are set to redefine the way traditional and online business is conducted all over the world.

But first, what is a mobile payment system? This phrase can apply to a number of different technologies but the basis is still the same: it is a system for initiating and accepting transactions using a mobile device. This applies to how consumers pay for goods as well as how merchants process transactions.

Of course, one of the primary concerns with mobile payments is security. Recent security hacks and the increase in instances of identify theft have made consumers more cautious about their personal information. Large tech companies like Apple have emphasized over and over the security features of their products and measures taken to keep users�?privacy from leaking out into the world. And every product that manages to make a headline touts itself to be the ultimate solution to all of our cash-and-credit-card-heavy wallet woes.

There are generally four different technologies upon which mobile payments build their platforms. These are important to know when examining functionality and security.

• Near Field Communication (NFC): Contactless, almost instantaneous transfer of data between devices. NFC is often used in “Tap and Go�?payment methods, such as tapping the smartphone to a device reader.
• Wireless Application Protocol (WAP): With WAP, the smartphone connects to the internet, then pays via an online payment system (such as Paypal or Google Wallet) or by entering credit card info through the merchant’s website. Alternatively, WAP can also defer the charge to the phone pill.
• Short Messaging Service (SMS) Payments: Considered a bit more “old-school�? SMS allows users to pay for goods and services via a text message sent from the phone. The cost of the item is then added to the user’s monthly phone bill.
• In-App Billing or Direct Mobile Billing: Most commonly used when purchasing an app from an online store or a game, this system charges the cost of the product to the monthly phone bill.

The world of mobile payment systems is not limited to just these four technologies, though.  Small pockets of communities across the world are experimenting with new ways to transfer money from consumers to merchants. Here are some other examples to look for over the next couple of years:

• QR Code Payments: CurrentC is one company in the U.S. experimenting with using QR codes to purchase items. Although QR codes are not as common in the U.S. it is much more popular in Europe and Asia. It will be interesting to see if QR codes will catch on with American audiences.
• Direct Carrier/Bank Cooperation: No credit card number or bank account information is needed. Instead, the mobile phone and phone carrier become the front-end interface for consumers to purchase goods and transfer money via a mobile phone number. This payment system is in its very early experimental stages.
• Audio Signal-Based Payment: This sounds like something from a sci-fi movie. This payment system uses acoustic feature of phones to support mobile payments and other applications that are not chip-based. The microphone on cell phones can pick up these audio signatures to enable electronic transactions. The advantage to this is that all phones are capable of picking up audio signals, whereas not every phone is NFC-equipped.
• Bitcoin: Bitcoin is an online payment system that was developed in 2009 that utilizes virtual, alternative currency with no transaction fees, with gives it a leg up from traditional credit cards. There are also no middle men (like banks) to take additional transaction fees. Consumers can purchase their merchandise anonymously. Bitcoin has yet to gain a lot of traction in with the mainstream audience, though small percentage of merchants accept it. Some people are purchasing bitcoins as an investment, hoping they will  dramatically increase in value over time.

Customized eCommerce Solutions

Logic Solutions can help you with your eCommerce and mCommerce strategy, development, implementation, and support. Find out how you can have a beautiful, functional frontend and a powerful backend to support your business needs.

Let us help you

Jennifer Pan is a marketing coordinator at Logic Solutions. If you want to get her attention, try talking to her about d20s, (board) games, sci-fi and geeky references, or cute animal videos…or all of them at once. Just don’t bring up her uncanny ability to roll natural 1s.

The post What the heck are mobile payment systems? appeared first on 雷技信息科技（上海）有限公司.

We’ve created a beautiful, simple comparison chart to show that Community and Enterprise Editions are functionally very similar. Community is good for most businesses. Features that aren’t available out-of-the-box with Community can be programmed with extensions available for download or custom-built by Logic experts.

For an in-depth comparison of the two editions, click on the infographic below for a larger version.

But wait, what’s the difference between Magento and other eCommerce software, such as WooCommerce, Shopify, and BigCommerce? We’re working on that comparison chart right now, so stay on the look out for the next infographic!

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Logic Solutions can help you design the solution that you want to share with the world. Let us create the innovative mobile apps, websites, eCommerce, or healthcare solutions you need to stand out.

Find your perfect solution

Jennifer Pan is a marketing coordinator at Logic Solutions. If you want to get her attention, try talking to her about d20s, (board) games, sci-fi and geeky references, or cute animal videos…or all of them at once. Just don’t bring up her uncanny ability to roll natural 1s.

The post What’s the difference between Magento Community and Enterprise? appeared first on 雷技信息科技（上海）有限公司.

Announced on December 18, Magento has launched the new Developer Beta code on GitHub for download and installation. This is the first major release and breakthrough since Magento 1.x.

There are also several exciting Magento 2-related announcements to go along with the new code. Here is the quick overview of all of them:

Source: Magento

New Developer Hub

Magento has launched a brand-new online resource called the Magento 2 Developer Hub. Now developers and tech-savvy people can access documentation, blog posts from the Magento technical team, video tutorials, upcoming events, and more. Additionally, community-created resources will be added to the site. This is sure to be a page to check regularly for updates!

Updated Documentation

Public documentation for Magento 2 is available! A perfect read for those looking for more information on the new release.

Changes to GitHub

The Magento team will soon update their GitHub process allowing them to directly accept submissions and pull requests.  This new system will provide more transparency and a more visible commit history, as well as proper attribution to contributors.

Magento 2 Developer Beta Webinars

Missed both Magento 2 Developer Beta webinar sessions? Don’t worry, you can find recordings to the sessions on the Developer Hub!

Now, get cracking on that new code! Treat yourself to one more holiday gift!

Looking for a solution?

Logic Solutions can help you design the solution that you want to share with the world. Let us create the innovative mobile apps, websites, eCommerce, or healthcare solutions you need to stand out.

Find your perfect solution

Jennifer Pan is a marketing coordinator at Logic Solutions. If you want to get her attention, try talking to her about d20s, (board) games, sci-fi and geeky references, or cute animal videos…or all of them at once. Just don’t bring up her uncanny ability to roll natural 1s.

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