What is headless commerce?

A headless CMS (Content Management System) does all the hard work for you by handling the back-end, leaving you to focus on what’s on your front page and/or making orders. There is no need to update code or install any packages on your website. Headless technology can help improve website speed and keep user experience high.

Headless CMS offers so much flexibility, and it’s best to start small. You can start by visiting the open-source CMS of your choice.

Why is it important?

We’re at a turning point in e-commerce. Many new initiatives help retailers succeed and grow their business, but it’s not easy to navigate. Each channel has a different set of technical needs, which is a massive problem with so much competition. Headless commerce can solve this problem and take advantage of it when many channels and devices explode. Also, with the decline of big-box retailers like Best Buy and Sears, we need new ways to buy stuff that don’t involve entering passwords and credit card information into their websites. It seems like there should be a better way. Headless commerce can help us find a solution. How does it work?

How does it work?

Headless commerce is a system that moves the guts of the sales process and analytics away from the website and toward the backend. It doesn’t mean that the website is gone; it means that the website will function as a place for your customers to browse, but ultimately they’ll be funneled to one place: the selling engine. This should be big news for the industry because moving the sales process is key to creating digital channels. For example, if I want to buy something from you, I want to do it without leaving your website. I want to take my email address and sign up for an automatic reminder for my shipment. This could be just a text message, a call from my smartphone, or perhaps it’s the sound of my home’s doorbell.

How does it affect retailers and buyers?

Gone are the days of clickable links, “welcome to,” “click here to view your orders.” Headless commerce removes all those unnecessary pieces and replaces them with a consistent user experience that allows for an amazing consumer experience, increased conversions, and a better ROI.

Today’s consumer has grown more comfortable with online shopping. So, what happens when you have to speak to a chatbot? Consumers often have the same fear when they want to buy from a website, but that’s a thing of the past with headless commerce. Shopping experiences are now seamless and, in many cases, are highly engaging. And as more consumers embrace the convenience of online shopping, we’ll see fewer of them visiting stores to make a purchase.

The result is a more streamlined experience, with a seamless experience for all parties. So what does this mean for buyers and sellers? Customers no longer have to wade through text to make an online purchase. Instead, they can use a focus group of their own to decide whether they like a product before they even start browsing it. This helps save valuable time while also giving a higher conversion rate. It’s a win-win for both sides. Buyers no longer have to deal with poor customer service.

Is Headless Commerce Secure?

One of the greatest benefits of headless commerce is enhanced security. A few inherent qualities of headless architecture make it much more resilient to cyber threats than coupled software.

• Headless CMS is much easier to monitor and control with one uniform data structure, decreasing the risk of a critical failure.
• APIs used to provide content to a headless CMS come mostly in the read-only mode, further reducing the risk of cyberattacks.

Conclusion

You’ve probably seen headless commerce in action in the past year. Salesforce has been one of the industry leaders in this new paradigm. Salesforce’s solutions are easier to use than ever before. You can build customer personas, run A/B testing, and create sentiment analytics.

Related article:

• Switch to Headless E-Commerce and Save Hours of Time
• What You Need To Know About Headless E-Commerce: The 10 Biggest Benefits

Headless Commerce Will Change The Way You Sell Online was originally published in Thinking Pandas on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Headless e-commerce is a hot topic in the world of e-commerce. The idea behind headless e-commerce is to make your shopping experience more personalized and seamless by presenting the user with the data they need when they need it.

And if you’ve been thinking about moving your e-commerce business over to headless e-commerce, you’ve probably already heard a lot about the benefits of headless e-commerce. But there are a lot of benefits that can be difficult to see on your own.

To help you decide if headless e-commerce is the right move for your business, we’ve compiled the 10 biggest benefits of headless e-commerce.

1. Superior Search Experience

When you enable users to shop your site with the same pages, they’re already accustomed to. They’re much more likely to visit more pages on your site. Think about it. Your site is already filled with valuable shopping content. Why would a user search your site? Instead, they click through to find their answer on the site they’re already comfortable with.

2. A Fully Responsive Design

That means you get to choose the best approach for your site. Users who need a mobile experience will love your responsive design, users who want a desktop experience will love your website design.

3. Personalized Shopping Experience

With headless e-commerce, you can now personalize your e-commerce experience at scale. Imagine your shopping cart showing up at the front door with a personalized and targeted offer. What a way to get customers to your storefront!

4. No Coding Required

You’ll be able to add elements and page elements to your existing e-commerce website, configure them, and send them live. It will require no coding or special plugins or scripts to ensure your e-commerce site functions. The only things you’ll need to do are update the user interface, theme, or customize the page elements, so you can remain agile and nimble to respond to customer demand.

5. Faster Load Times

With headless e-commerce, every customer page should be static, and the page should be in their view. All page elements, even ads, should be completely transparent. Your customers shouldn’t have to wait for pages to load; they should be able to see what’s on the page, and they should be able to navigate it immediately.

6. Increased SEO

If you’ve been optimizing your website for the past years, you’ve probably noticed that Google ranks your website for search terms much more quickly and effectively when it’s delivered on the website that you’ve decided to serve to the user. This is why Google likes to rank websites that serve as the user’s point of entry into the experience. The user should not have to click into a separate set of options or bounce out into a different page. Headless e-commerce is perfect for sites that rely on visitor traffic to remain popular.

7. Increased Omnichannel Commerce

Headless e-commerce allows brands to build strong omnichannel strategies that flexibly offer commerce wherever their customers are shopping and still run everything on a single platform.

8. Scalability

Headless e-commerce allows you to scale your e-commerce features by default, which is great news for businesses of any size. You can start small and then add more features as your business grows. This means you don’t have to pay for a new e-commerce system or rework all of your existing ones.

Instead, you can focus on growing your business instead of developing a more complicated e-commerce system.

9. Long-term Cost Savings

As soon as you switch to headless e-commerce, you can manage the changes on the site yourself, and your tech support costs will be halved since there will be no need to make changes in the back-end part. Instead, the front-end part can easily be managed by a non-developers team or partially by front-end developers.

10. Flexibility

Your tech team or even non-developers can implement necessary changes — new features, functionality, or integrations to your website easier and faster. For instance, your team can create a new field for the Promo page when required. Any alterations are easy to execute and add, no more editing of several layers of coding to update e-commerce themes directly, as everything is applicable within the Headless CMS.

Conclusion

No matter what you choose to use, I highly encourage you to make sure your website is as dynamic as possible. Having a website with a simple front page and static content is easy to prevent your website from connecting with your audience. For example, while the U.S. has over 5,000 shopping malls, the typical American consumer visits just 1.8 malls per year. With online retailers developing their websites and migrating to online shopping, it’s important to put your customer experience ahead of anything else.

Headless e-commerce has become an important part of the e-commerce space in recent years. One of the biggest benefits of headless e-commerce is the ability to track conversions more accurately and effectively.

Let’s discuss how we can help you build your next business strategy with high performance suited for today’s digital environment at www.thinkingpandas.com

What You Need To Know About Headless E-Commerce: The 10 Biggest Benefits was originally published in Thinking Pandas on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Imagine this: You’ve finally launched your online store after months of hard work, and you’re feeling pretty proud of yourself. But as soon as you check your traffic reports, you realize that the majority of your sales come from your website, not your store. That’s because your store has a lot of flaws that prevent people from buying from it.

The good news is there is a way you can prevent this from happening — switch to headless e-commerce to save hours of time.

What is Headless E-commerce?

When your site has no traditional website structure, e-commerce can be integrated easily. Why is that? Because headless e-commerce doesn’t need a website structure. It can be executed anywhere, whether on a single page, webpage, or even a single image. If you’re at the beginning of your e-commerce journey, headless e-commerce will make it easier to create a user-friendly shopping experience that your customers will be able to get behind. The main benefit is that a headless e-commerce site will be easier to design.

A brief and easy explanation is that headless e-commerce separates your online store’s back-end functionality from your website’s front-end visuals.

How to switch to headless e-commerce?

Ready to take the leap and switch to headless e-commerce?

To switch to headless e-commerce, first, you have to understand what you’re customers need. Take a moment to view your business as a customer would and analyze the customer experience. Create a list from your current platform, what if offers, what it’s missing, and what you want to prioritize to add to the customer experience. Knowing all of this will allow you to go to a front-end developer with a clear idea of what you want to build for your website.

Why you should switch to headless e-commerce

Save time with site core platforms

Most e-commerce sites had their front and back-ends tied together, it can be time-consuming and you can lose a lot of business profit in that period.

Headless e-commerce simplifies the process with the separation of your front-end and back-end systems. The less time and money you spent, the higher profit you earn.

Improves customer experience

one of the things you don’t want for your business is losing customers because you haven’t kept up with their wants and desires. They prefer that the user experience be fast, reliable, and easy to use. Headless e-commerce can fulfill your customer’s needs whilst fulfilling yours and keeping your business on top of the latest trends.

Whenever a business makes a switch to new or another technology, it’s critical to know that we can customize it to our consumers’ needs.

Headless e-commerce takes it a step beyond simple customization; you can use it to create personalized presences according to each target market and their specific needs.

Headless E-commerce vs. Traditional Commerce

Here’s a comparison between headless e-commerce and traditional commerce.

Headless e-commerce provides retailers with a new standard for flexibility, adaptability, and customization that can be done quickly as needed to improve the customer experience. If you haven’t explored a headless solution yet, it’s time to see what you’ve been missing and why this is the e-commerce innovation everyone’s talking about.

Let’s discuss how we can help you build your next business strategy with high performance suited for today’s digital environment at www.thinkingpandas.com

Switch to Headless E-Commerce and Save Hours of Time was originally published in Thinking Pandas on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Whether you own a business with a physical location or a home-based business, it’s important to have an online presence. A well-maintained website can help your business grow. It can help you reach new customers, keep in touch with current customers, generate more revenue, and make you more visible online.

However, a website can also be a big responsibility. You might not have the time or knowledge to set up a website and manage it effectively.

Don’t worry — we’ve got you covered. Here are what you need to take to manage your business’ website.

6 basic things you need to do to maintain your website

1. User Experience
2. Call to Action Button (CTA)
3. Gain More Traffic
4. Website Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
5. Server Security
6. Support

1. User Experience: The importance of good design

Your website is your first step in marketing. It’s a good idea to design your website in a way that allows your visitors to navigate easily and navigate back to your homepage when they have finished exploring your website. If they aren’t able to access your home page, then they’re probably going to leave, either without buying anything or not finding what they were looking for in the first place. A good website should be easy to find, easy to navigate, and easy to find the information you’re looking for.

2. Call to Action Button (CTA)

Every page of your site needs to have a reason. An activity that you want your customers to take. It needs to be obvious and specific.

3. Gain more traffic

Identify the top most trafficked pages and customize your content so that your top traffic-generating pages receive the most attention.

We suggest using Google Analytics (GA) because you can track how your visitors are accessing your site and what pages they are viewing. Google Analytics also includes analytics for mobile web users. Use GA to see what your visitors are doing when they access your site, including their location and how they get to your site so you would know what needs to improve and what needs to maintain.

4. Website Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

A website with good content is a good first step, but if you want to get ahead of the competition, you’ll want to invest in more Search Engine Optimization. SEO is a big part of creating a good online presence. It helps your website rank higher in the search results, which means people will find it easier to find.

5. Server Security

Keeping your website’s server safe is the job of your hosting company.

This is why you need to choose your web host wisely. A great web host will invest the proper resources to secure your server from attacks from spam, bots, and hackers.

A poor web host will leave your website exposed to attacks and hackers.

6. Support

Provide great customer support that gives your visitors the help they need.

Types of customer support:

• Email Support
• Chat Support/Live Chat Support
• Phone Support

- Email Support

Email support is still the most common form of contacting businesses today. But if you keep on editing your website, you will want a web host that is responsive.

- Chat Support/Live Chat Support

Chat support is the trend these days.

Unfortunately, some large companies are using it poorly. Often by using it as nothing more than another sales popup and have been getting into live chat support as their customer support option.

- Phone Support

It certainly is often the most effective when trying to get satisfying customer support. But, unfortunately, many companies are not offering phone customer support at all.

Website Management Goals

When it comes to website management, there are many goals you can set and measure. Your first goal might be simply getting people to visit your site. For example, let’s say your goal is to get 50 new customers per month. To accomplish this goal, you want to: Display images. Have content that keeps people coming back to your site. Use social media to let customers know about your website and answer their questions. Avoid cluttering your site with so many advertisements that visitors quickly become annoyed and leave. Reach out to potential customers who follow your competitors’ online pages. Emphasize that your site is for real people, not robots. Offer a well-designed navigation system. Personalize your contact information.

Conclusion

Choosing the right type of theme is important because it will set the tone and create a visual language for your brand. Once you have chosen the right theme, you’ll be able to put all the necessary content, information, and advertisements that your website will need in place. This will help you keep track of your numbers and help you accurately monitor your SEO. If your website doesn’t have a lot of visitors, you can consider hiring a web designer to make changes or fix things that need improvement.

A Guide to Effective Website Management was originally published in Thinking Pandas on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

First things first

The first computer programmer was a woman, her name was Ada Lovelace who was born in 1815.

Fact #2

The most widely used programming language is still JavaScript with 49.47%. And what is curious is that 32.45% of the respondents said they’re not planning to use any new programming languages in the upcoming 12 months.

Fact #3

Did you know? A Full Stack Developer usually knows 4–6 main programming languages and frameworks.

Fact #4

The most important factors for project managers to measure developers' performance are: Working Software, Completed Tasks, and Code Readability

The number one cause of failure for most project managers is a lack of clearly defined deliverables, followed by unrealistic expectations and estimation.

Fact #5

Jira is the most-used tool for managing software development projects. Trello is the second most popular.

In the case of communication tools, Slack (58.66%) wins, followed by e-mail (45.06%), and then Jira (26.32%).

Fact #6

According to a survey, various web developers were asked what job title they would prefer most. They were asked to choose among the job titles like Engineers, Developers, Programmers, Senior Developers, and Full-Stack Developers. With 72.6 % of the vote, the title “Web Developer” was the most common choice.

Fact #7

In 1957, the first of the major programming languages appeared in the form of FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslating) System. The programming language was designed at IBM for scientific computing.

Fact #8

Scrum is the most often Agile Software Development methodology in 2020. You can see a clear advantage of this approach to project development if compared to other methodologies. Kanban is second. Interestingly, 17% of respondents indicated that they do not use Agile methodology at all. How does it look like for your projects?

Fact #9

Thomas Edison was the first person who uses the word “bug”. He uses the word “bug” to describe a technical issue. He used it in a letter that dates back to 1878. However, it wasn’t until 70 years later that the term became so popular.

At 3:45 PM, September 9, 1947, the first actual incident of a computer bug was recorded.

Fact #10

Mostly, programmers enjoy caffeine while coding, drinking 2–6 cups of coffee per day. Interesting!

Share what you think about the above facts in the comment section. We are happy to talk! 😊

Sources:

• Innovation Over Time: The Early Days of Software Development
• Interesting facts about software development:statistics
• Interesting software development facts. Do you know about that? [2021 UPDATE]

https://medium.com/agileactors/10-interesting-facts-about-software-development-infographic-614fd06f775

10 Interesting Facts About Software Development was originally published in Thinking Pandas on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

What Is the Product Development Process?

It refers to the entire range of campaigns where an organization or a company forms a concept and realizes a new product offering. A product concept might develop in the marketplace, or in a lab or workspace but also, ideas can often come from customer requirements, as well.

Product development is a process that can be improved upon in many ways. You start brainstorming and throwing out ideas, but you know you’ve got to come up with something really good. The key is creativity. So how do you make sure that your idea makes it to market?

Here are 10 creative strategies to get you out of a rut and into a creative flow.

1. Brainstorm

We all get ideas at weird times, even though they are often just fluff that floats around in our minds until we are ready to act on them. Start brainstorming and think outside the box. It’s easy to fall into the “all or nothing” mentality when it comes to product development. Yes, your idea needs to be extraordinary. But that doesn’t mean it needs to be your only option. You might be able to make a better version of something by flipping a few things around.

“Brainstorming needs to be done by reaching out and analyzing the marketplace. This is done by getting feedback from social media, reading comments on [industry] articles and talking to people who interact in that channel.” — Mark Dohnalek, president, Pivot International

2. Turn an idea into a project

A ‘why’ question can change your entire perspective on something. That’s the first step in turning an idea into something tangible and usable. Start by asking yourself the question: Why would anyone want to buy this product? You can also add your idea to a whiteboard and use it to plan your project and think of solutions to the problems you’ve already encountered. You may find solutions when you’re answering the question “why.”

You’ll need to think about how users will actually interact with your product. It could be a furniture item or maybe you’re creating an app. Keep in mind that the product you’re creating will have a different purpose and user. So you need to see and consider every kind of scenario a user would experience.

You’ll hear people describe the process of prototype development as prototyping: make something, test it, improve it.

3. Work on prototypes

Making prototypes helps you avoid risk. Many people are reluctant to start a product development project, but it’s a great way to assess market response and learn the best way to market your idea. Test your idea to get feedback, before moving on to a full-scale production plan.

4. Make a list

This one’s a no-brainer. Whether you’re trying to improve your marketing or you’re looking for a new business idea, make a list of the top ideas or concerns. The key here is to zero in on the thing that keeps coming to mind first. You can do this exercise with employees, too, to get everyone’s input and perspectives.

5. Draw a mind map

Now that you’ve gotten all the products and features that you need to your mind, take a step back and outline the process that your product must go through to get to market. Go through your production process by breaking it down into smaller pieces and adding more details, such as customer testimonials and user-generated content. You should now have a mind map that gives you all the details you need to make your idea a reality. Eliminate the “editing” step in your product development process.

7. Turn a problem into an opportunity

It happens all the time. You think of an idea to help with a pain point in your market, but it’s not quite there. So you’ll come up with 10 more ideas to try and analyze the ones that have the best potential for a positive impact.

8. Stand out in a crowded space

In this world of all things mobile and connected, the smartphone is king. But what about your other devices? You might be out of the game if you don’t have a strong app platform. So what if you make your next marketing campaign stand out?

9. Listen

You need to be open to all feedback that you get. How many times have you worked out in your head that something should be easy and it isn’t? It happens to the best of us. As you are all about your customers, listening to their feedback is really important. That said, you should only consider customer feedback if you have spent enough time with your product, and not to the extent of what you call it: knowing your product backward and forwards. Customer feedback is great for testing ideas. You need to test things constantly!

10. Life after launch

After launching a new product or service, the only people interacting with customers are the sales team. Not only should there be a detailed plan as to how this new product will be supported by the product development team, but you should also have extensive training and education available to staff.

Conclusion

Designers and developers always have different ways of thinking. They use different tools and processes. But you have to remember that you can get creative with the tools and processes you already have. Get stuck on a workflow problem? Try out a couple of ideas and see which one works best for your workflow. And remember to stay creative in all of the different stages of the design process. It will improve your overall product development process and help you avoid the deadly ‘workflow hell’ traps.

Do you have other crazy creative tools or techniques you use when you develop your projects? Let us know in the comments.

10 Insanely Creative Ways To Improve Your Product Development Process was originally published in Thinking Pandas on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Selling on the internet, or e-commerce is a huge undertaking and it is one of the most viable ways you can start your own business. This type of business is perfect for the right person, but it’s not for everyone.

A successful e-commerce business requires five key components:
1. The right product
2. The right marketing
3. The right pricing
4. The right customer service
5. The right shipping and fulfillment

The following tips will help you decide whether or not you’re ready to start your own e-commerce business.

Should I start an e-commerce business?

Before you commit to starting your own e-commerce business, you need to ask yourself one critical question: is this business something I can do in my free time?

The answer is not obvious, as it involves a lot of different variables. Have you spent years of your life freelancing for others? Have you read thousands of e-commerce sites online? Have you started a side business or sold products to friends? If you can answer yes to these questions, then you may be ready to start an e-commerce business. If you feel like you don’t have the right skills or experience to make your business successful, you may be better off doing something else. Starting a business takes a lot of energy and hard work. You don’t want to get into an industry where you won’t have enough time to succeed.

Tips on starting an e-commerce business

One of the most important things you can do to launch your e-commerce business is the following:

1. Choosing a strong domain name. A great domain is vital for creating brand awareness. You may need to invest a bit of money, but it can pay off in the long run. You can also use your social media accounts to generate domain searches.
2. Create a logo that is catchy, but not too flashy. When you decide on your domain name, it’s a good idea to hire a .com web designer to help you with your branding. It’s also a good idea to ask for the support of friends or family who are tech-savvy.
3. You’ll want to choose a hosting company as you start setting up your website.

What does it take to start an e-commerce business?

Plan Ahead: As you’re learning about starting your business, it’s important that you do your research and create a plan of action for how you will launch and grow your business.

Ask around: You can’t anticipate every question that you will be asked when starting a business. Find out who you can trust and talk to people who have already started their own business. These people can be great resources and can help answer questions you may have.

What are the benefits of an e-commerce business?

One of the benefits of e-commerce is to sell products online without an expensive brick-and-mortar storefront. E-commerce is a great way to sell products online. You don’t need expensive equipment, display stands, inventory, or shipping equipment to sell products online. As a result, you’re able to scale your business at a fraction of the cost.

You can also reach a large number of potential customers by selling on popular platforms. With an e-commerce website, you can reach customers all over the world. You can use keywords to target customers, who you’d otherwise never be able to. Ability to make a profit quickly and easily. E-commerce allows you to set your prices, your shipping costs, and everything else yourself. You’re not required to deal with large, expensive corporations.

The challenges of starting an e-commerce business

If you’re planning on starting a business in an industry like e-commerce, you’ll probably have to go through an extensive process to make sure you’re legally qualified to operate that business.

The following are some of the things to consider before you make the decision to launch an e-commerce business.

• Legal requirements. Your business must be legal, and your business must comply with the law. This means you will have to pay the appropriate taxes, and you must obey all laws and regulations. You will have to register with the appropriate agencies, and you will have to comply with their regulations. Your government will even regulate the products you sell, which means you will have to get special licenses to sell certain products.
• Customer Experience. Figuring out how to give your customers the same experience they would get in a physical store can be a challenge.
• Cybersecurity. Entrepreneurs need a legitimate network safety system to keep information free from any danger while helping employees at the organization feel engaged and protected to execute arrangements and tech to battle cyberattacks.

Conclusion

If you’ve made your mind up that you’re ready to start an e-commerce business, here are some factors to consider before you dive into the waters of e-commerce:

• Make sure you have at least a few years of experience selling online. Research the market carefully to see how your product will sell. It’s better to sell a niche product than a commodity.
• Write a detailed marketing plan and schedule, including what sales periods and promotions you will be using to market your products.
• Choose your niche wisely. It doesn’t matter if you are selling underwear or furniture, you need to narrow your focus.
• Prepare a financial budget to determine the amount of money you’ll need to start your e-commerce business.

Tips On Starting An E-commerce Business was originally published in Thinking Pandas on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I know what you’re thinking, “should I be marketing my business on Facebook in 2021?” It’s a difficult question, but it’s not impossible. Think about it, Facebook is still the world’s largest social media site with 2 billion monthly active users. That’s more than a quarter of the world’s population! There are also some positives to Facebook that we need to take into consideration. So, if you’ve been thinking about starting your own Facebook page for your business and focus your marketing efforts on Facebook, there are a few things to consider.

Should you be marketing your business on Facebook in 2021?

Social media platforms evolve, change, and there is always something new that can be discovered. What is one thing that’s not changing about Facebook in 2021? The status of having a thriving business on Facebook. This is an opportunity for your business to gain access to a large number of potential customers. In addition to Facebook being the biggest social media platform out there, Facebook has some great metrics that you should take into consideration. Facebook Marketing Statistics — the best way to learn even though Facebook might not be the best social media platform for your business in 2021, there are still some things you can do to be successful. Here are a few of those things. Look at all of your Facebook followers as people that can be converted into customers.

What you must also consider

The first thing to keep in mind is that if you do plan to be active on Facebook, you will have to be sure your company is ready to handle the increasing profile it will inevitably bring. Simply put, you have to have a good sense of your company’s profile and how your customers will view your Facebook page. Does your company have the resources to support the activity you’ll be doing on Facebook? Are you willing to make use of Facebook’s advertising tool to boost your Facebook exposure? Does your company’s page, content, and information match what your potential customers want to see and need to know about your business? These questions will all factor into your decision to move forward with Facebook.

What are some of the benefits of marketing on Facebook?

In addition to the impact on a huge user base, marketing on Facebook can make it easy to reach customers across the globe. Facebook has 2 billion monthly active users around the world. That’s almost 3 times the population of the United States! These users are very often younger, have similar interests, and are very familiar with social media. Another benefit of Facebook marketing is that it allows your business to target your market and capture all potential customers within your customer pool. If you are a restaurant or bar, you can target your customers based on age, location, employment, alcohol consumption, etc.

Making it easier with the app, we can post directly to our Facebook page without having to go through the entire website. Facebook has also become a lot easier for people to understand. People from all over the world post at a high rate and much of it is through video. This is important to consider when you’re starting a Facebook page for your business. With so many people using the social media platform, you can expect them to be diverse in some aspects. So, it’s important that you choose the right people to target and the right content to post. Increased conversions what does this mean for your business?

What are some of the downsides of marketing on Facebook?

Potential growth issues: Your business gets no more than 2 to 3% of page likes which is irrelevant to your marketing plan. Users who visit your page are immediately brought to your website and paid ads that require a special type of browser and are offered a “free trial” of the product or service they found on your page. Can a fan/customer be turned away from purchasing a product or service from your Facebook page? Are you ready to cut the cord? If you’re a purist when it comes to business plans and what’s important to you, then you’re probably ready to cancel your Facebook page. But, if you’re a typical entrepreneur who is busy being a mom, going back to work, managing the mortgage, cooking dinner, and looking after the kids, Facebook has its advantages. Is Facebook worth the effort?

However, there are some negatives to Facebook. And Facebook is working to fix them. And over time, I believe these flaws will be sorted out and the market share will move to other platforms.

The downsides to Facebook for online marketers have included:

1. Legacy users can’t understand the new advertising interface. It can be confusing and hard to navigate.
2. Facebook does not allow you to publish a “live” video on a page.
3. Marketing on Facebook is expensive. And since Facebook is the second most expensive social network site, that’s saying something.

Why would you choose Facebook for marketing in 2021? If you want to start a Facebook marketing campaign for your business in 2021, the biggest reason would be if you want to “make” Facebook work for you.

Why is it worth the hassle?

The main reasons to use Facebook for marketing are ease of use and the potential for virality. Both of these areas can have a profound impact on your marketing efforts. They can increase your engagement with existing customers, help you build new relationships, and generate more leads. Increased Engagement Users who have an active Facebook page are most likely interested in your products or services, and you’re more likely to find out if they’re willing to buy them. You’ll find that a lot of your customers are highly active and are giving you feedback almost immediately. By posting regular updates and engaging in the community, you’re able to create an ongoing relationship with them.

Conclusion

There are a lot of other social media sites, but Facebook is the most widespread and has the largest market share. Therefore, I’d suggest you focus on Facebook if you plan to market your business. But, if you want to keep all of your channels open for growth, then maybe take a look at some other social media sites, it might be worth exploring. Keep in mind that each site is unique and has its own audience.

However, if you’re looking for a Software Development Company to develop your tech ideas for your business, you should get to know Thinking Pandas Software Studio — a software agency where your ideas are beautifully executed by a dedicated tech team at your disposal. Offering a wide range of software solutions that can help you meet your objectives and make your business easier. Whether you’re a growing startup or an enterprise with complex needs, we can build the digital products that will drive your success today and for many years to come.

Best of luck with your business! 😉

Is Growing Your Business on Facebook in 2021 Worth the Hassle? was originally published in Thinking Pandas on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

What is a North Star Metric?

To put it simply, the North Star Metric (NSM) is your most important measure of success for your product. The North Star Metric is a performance management system that measures long-term growth versus short-term growth.

Well-known North Star Metric examples are:

• Spotify : “Time spent listening”
• Airbnb : “Number of nights booked”
• Facebook : “Monthly active users”

The thought behind the North Star Metric is that assuming your company carries more value to your customers, then the growth of your company needs to be positive. The assumption is that if your customers receive get a great deal of value, they will stay longer, purchase more, and allude more companions to your organization.

Thus, your business grows in every respect if your NSM also grows.

Your North Star Metrics is going to be recurring, it’ll help you measure your SaaS company. You might need more than one if:

1. You have access to many different user roles in your product.
2. You have more than one key value proposition
3. When you’re selling more than one product

Now, let’s break down the five easy steps to actually calculating your metric.

Step #1: Identify the “Gating” Factor

It’s essential to ask yourself what type of performance metric is the most important for your business. Ideally, you want to know how your North Star Metric can be measured. This is the primary question that must be answered.

Step #2: Create More Than One NSM

Larger companies may find themselves having several NSM. However, try to keep these metrics to a minimum, not more than three or so. You only need one or two guiding principles.

Often, teams will use metrics that are specific to their needs, depending on what they’re looking to achieve.

Step #3: Know your “AHA” Moments

These moments are crucial for nurturing relationships with your customers. It refers to the conversations you have with customers that lead them to satisfaction and choosing to continue working with you in the future.

Step #4: Find The Common Conversion Activity from Users

Common conversion activities are the activities that define the behavior of accounts that make users keep coming back to your product, or become “sticky,” which have a medium to a high positive impact on retention.

Step #5: Determine your North Star Metric

Once you have a metric, you can identify why it’s important for your business. Then you can determine what to do to grow it. Growth can come from all sorts of places, such as: Acquiring customers Sell more of your product or service Increase revenue Increase your productivity For each of these, you’ll need a strategy. If you aren’t sure what to do, it’s helpful to think of a target number you want to hit. For example, if you want to grow your revenue from $500,000 per year to $1.5 million per year, you’ll need to increase your revenue by 2% each year. From there, you can start finding ways to grow your revenue.

More examples of NSM from large, well-known companies:

To summarize a good North Star Metric has three attributes:

1. It Measures the customer value
2. It represents product strategy
3. Its leading indicator of revenue

Conclusion

Measuring SaaS growth isn’t easy, and finding the right metrics can be challenging. Using our five steps, you can determine your SaaS metrics and where you need to focus.

“You should build a North Star Metric based on your original belief or core value. That’s why he recommends that you first focus on your core values.” — Jeff Bezos

5 Easy Steps To Find your “North Star Metric” for SaaS was originally published in Thinking Pandas on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The history of software development spans centuries, not decades. From the creation of the first adding machine hundreds of years ago, our human progress has been improving innovation in ways previously considered impossible. Along with that hardware, upgrades have been software improvements that have made our lives easier, from calculators, from massive machines like the ENIAC computer to smartphones and other mobile devices, computing has seen incredibly rapid technological change.

The evolution of software from operating systems and spreadsheets to mobile apps and games, you interact with software every time you use a computer is a fascinating look into how we manipulate the world around us, including the digital world that we’ve created.

The Early Days of Software Development

The evolution of software development stretches back hundreds of years when Ada Lovelace discovered that computers could follow a sequence of instruction — that is programming, hence, Lovelace was called to be the First Programmer.

Charles Babbage, AKA the “Father of the Computer” corresponded with Ada Lovelace for years, discussing math and computing as he developed the Analytical Engine. Lovelace’s notes clarified that she comprehended the Analytical Engine just as Babbage himself, and moreover, she how to cause it to do the things computers do. She suggested that the data input would program the machine to calculate Bernoulli numbers, which is now considered the first computer program. But more than that, Lovelace was a visionary: she understood that numbers could be used to represent more than just quantities, and a machine that could control numbers could be made to manipulate any information addressed by numbers. She anticipated that machines like the Analytical Engine could be used to utilized to create music, produce illustrations, and be helpful to science. Obviously, all that came true — in an additional 100 years.

On June 12, 1948, Computer researcher Tom Kilburn is liable for composing the world’s absolute first piece of programming at the University of Manchester in England.

Kilburn and his colleague Freddie Williams had fabricated probably the earliest computers, the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine (or also known as the “Baby”). The SSEM was customized to perform numerical estimations utilizing machine code guidelines. This first piece of programming took “just” 52 minutes to accurately process the best divisor of 2 to the force of 18 (262,144).

For quite a long time after this groundbreaking event, computers were customized with poke cards in which holes meant explicit machine code guidelines. Fortran, one of the absolute first more significant level programming dialects, was initially distributed in 1957. The following year, analyst John Tukey began the word “software” in an article about computer software. Other spearheading programming dialects like Cobol, BASIC, Pascal, and C showed up over the course of the following twenty years.

Software Development Throughout the Ages

Software development today remains on the shoulders of what preceded. C is still a popular programming language, although it’s been edged out by its younger brother C++. Mobile operating systems are alive and well, as are the programming languages used to code them. And we continue to have more digital space in the same physical space, pushing the limits of technology farther and farther.

One of the biggest movements in modern software development has been including chips in previously “dumb” devices, such as a slow cooker. In the past, a slow cooker would have a dial with three options: off, low, and high. A modern slow cooker, however, might contain a chip with unique programming on it that lets you set the amount of time it should cook for and the temperature. Then, it will switch automatically to a warming setting to prevent the food from overcooking. This is just one example of a way in which custom software development has changed how we interact with technology.

In addition, custom Web app development has exploded with the Internet, and a lot of the resulting software has moved back into the server room, now that we don’t need to be tethered to servers that are in the same room as we are. Nowadays, it’s much more convenient to have an entire program running on a server somewhere else and served to you online, either on a desktop computer or a wireless device.

Current Trends in Software Development

Innovators are adopting:

• Profound learning: a subset of AI dependent on artificial neural networks.
• Blockchain: a developing rundown of records that are connected with cryptography.
• Artificial intelligence: machine knowledge utilized in programming improvement (e.g., AI composing code or AI in programming testing).

Early adopters are embracing:

• Serverless/lambda: an approach to construct serverless applications (e.g., AWS Lambda).
• Responsive programming: a model organized around offbeat information streams (e.g., Java Completable Future).
• Orchestration: a way to automatically configure, coordinate, and manage systems (e.g., cloud orchestration).
• GraphQL: an open-source information question and control language for APIs.

An early majority has adopted:

• Microservices: a strategy to split an application up into an assortment of approximately coupled administrations.
• Permanent foundation: a way to deal with oversee administration or programming organizations (e.g., Infrastructure as Code).
• Programming interface plan: the way toward creating application programming interfaces (APIs) that uncover backend information and application usefulness for use in new applications.
• Lean: the use of lean assembling cycles to programming advancement (e.g., Kanban).

What do these trends enable? They help software development teams achieve the future, today. For example, NVIDIA has cards amazing enough for independent vehicles, with 320 trillion tasks every second on a card.

So, what is going to in software development?

What’s Next?

When looking back at the history of software development, it’s easy to ascertain where things may enter the longer term. As we enter the subsequent century, you can’t calculate technology remaining stagnant for an additional century, and hardware continues to enhance at a rapid pace. Will we keep on growing new devices that take care of old issues in smart new manners? What new advances will come in the programming language? What energizing programming ideas will wake up in the following century? As your task changes, so too will the manner by which you create and send it.

• Developments will increase
• Applications will get more modest
• Equipment will vanish
• Quantum registering will be a distinct advantage
• The product will be proactive
• Client Experience will (in any case) be #1

Conclusion

In the previous year, most would agree that all businesses have had a lot of innovative progressions. Everything from web-based media, to the capacity to prepare a full dinner with virtual voice orders, we can follow the beginning of each new headway back to the beginning of innovation. Albeit the post-CST period may have made ready for the time of AI, PCs, and the Internet, by and large, we owe everything to the past. Without PCs and every one of the long stretches of logical and clinical advances that have preceded, we probably won’t be the place where we are today.

However, if you’re looking for a Software Development Company, you should get to know Thinking Pandas Software Studio — a software agency where your ideas are beautifully executed by a dedicated tech team at your disposal. Offering a wide range of software solutions that can help you meet your objectives and make your business easier. Whether you’re a growing startup or an enterprise with complex needs, we can build the digital products that will drive your success today and for many years to come.

Get ready for the future of software development today!

Innovation Over Time: The Early Days of Software Development was originally published in Thinking Pandas on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.