The Open Express Articles | Egrove Systems

Impact of Social Media on E Shops

admin — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 11:00:44 +0000

Retail world is in its biggest revolutionary phase. Amazing! Buyers are migrating from physical shopping to virtual shopping at a rapid rate. In today’s developing world, e-commerce has become a most unique popular term. The biggest selling season of the year is underway.

According to Shop.org’s eHoliday survey, found out to be 4 out of 10 of the shoppers prefer to shop online for their holiday gifts. Reasons were pretty obvious: 24 hours. Convenience, free shipping and ease of price comparison; Now it’s time to renovate your customers as your brand ambassadors on social networking & bookmarking sites. Break the boundaries and stay ahead of your competitors by having social media integration in your websites.

Role of Social Medai:
Social Media have proved remarkable and tremendous growth. It is sure that in the very near future they will fill more space in the lives of individuals and businesses. Social media websites had a limited spectrum earlier, however now it’s a completely different picture altogether. Initially social media websites are used for connecting with people and sharing information but nowadays they have become a prominent part of the ecommerce industry. Consumers have started to make use of the social media platforms for discussing and comparing the products. For the online store owners, this is an important opportunity to forecast the consumer purchasing behavior by listing, following and analyzing the social networking websites. For e-commerce websites social media is an easy and rewarding platform and they must start capitalizing on it right away.

According to the statistics on social media made by social strategist Cara Pring, in 2012 social media driven ecommerce sites got 137.6 million unique visitors per month in the USA alone. In 2013, other social networking sites will start providing an ecommerce component since 62% of adult’s worldwide use social media in which social networking is the most popular online activity.

Facebook started online merchant stores in 2011 for customers to buy merchant’s goods directly through Facebook. It makes its site more open to merchants and users who might want to buy things while online on Facebook. And the happy note is Facebook accounts for 60% of social media driven purchases in 2012. As an outcome, every ecommerce store has fixed facebook login for the customer’s registration purpose.

Twitter commences to involve an ecommerce component with good cause. The average Twitter user has 126 followers and it achieves a 1.17% click through rate with 1.4 followers clicking the link. In Twitter, many merchants, brands and companies use their Twitter feed to monitor customer support issues, like product praises, complaints and technical or informational issues. Depending on the use of Twitter, you can engage as deeply with users and customers as you’d like.

Using social media tools to grow your e-commerce channel can stimulate online customer’s interest in your products and services. Surveys shows that 70 percent of adults shop online and that 53 percent of adults follow a brand. Hence online retailers are experiencing a totally new way of doing business. The growth trend in the e-commerce industry through social media provides them a unique opportunity to capture new consumers and also way to share their both mind and wallet. It also enables unique multichannel commerce behaviors before their competitors do so.

As a business owner, finding new ways to share your e-commerce availabilities via social media can only enhance your business. With more shares, you’ll find more friends of your brand and customers of your products. The world is becoming more social, and it’s a immense opportunity to make your brand social.

Group Buying Deal Scripts – Module Bazaar

admin — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 10:00:39 +0000

Online shopping gained popularity mainly because buyers were able to hunt down deals and group deals so as to save money during shopping. Coupon codes can be applied before making payment and as a result, merchants will drop the prices for buyers. As there is no need to hop stores physically, buyers too found group deals to be lucrative. If your ecommerce store doesn’t feature deals or group deals, then you are missing out on great things. It is now possible to purchase deal script and use it with your ecommerce store so that discount deals are automatically added to your product merchandise.

Daily deals websites are now incredibly popular as buyers can simply visit the website, look at the deals and make the purchase decision. Such websites are entirely dynamic and it takes thousands of dollars to develop professional deals websites. Not all online entrepreneurs have finances to develop such professional websites and that is why you have to make use of high quality software that can help you to develop deals websites for a much lower price.

The biggest benefit of buying clone scripts is that you can use the same script over and over again in multiple websites to create niche specific online group deals websites. Buyers will come together to form groups to purchase from your website so that they can use group deals to save money. You can also increase sales on your website as more customers will bring in more profits. The scripts will run automatically so that you can concentrate on your business.

You can customize the script by specifying products on which discount deals need to be specified. You can also set discount percentage and even include time specific discounts to encourage your customers to buy your products within a short period. Rather than choosing the first group deal script you come across, shop around and look for best scripts that can provide good results over a period of time

Check out Group Deal Clone Script from Module Bazaar

Necessity of Drop Shipping in Ecommerce Stores

admin — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 10:05:55 +0000

It’s the strategy that counts for a successful online venture.

We need to understand that Drop shipping is an order fulfillment strategy. The merchant need not maintain an inventory, but coordinates and relies on wholesalers or manufacturers to actually ship orders to customers. This arrangement does have several advantages that make it lucrative to online merchants.

This is how DropShipping works…

A customer places on order for a drop shipped product online.
The merchant receives the order and payment for the order.
He then either automatically or manually contacts the wholesaler or manufacturer, issuing a purchase order for the item and providing instructions for shipping directly to the customer.
The wholesaler or manufacturer ships the product, and the retailer earns a profit.
The customer receives the goods that he had ordered.

Let’s get to know few good reasons that almost any ecommerce merchant should consider DropShipping.

1. Choice to offer wider range of products

When an online store is Drop shipping enabled, it allows merchants to offer many more products for sale than what might be feasible if that merchant had to actually stockeverything.

The brighter side is that having a broad range of options can also help marketing, since each product page can be a landing page, entry in a comparison-shipping engine, or additional page for Google or Bing to index. These additional products are surely a way of introducing a greater number of potential customers to the store.

2. Reach the Market More Quickly

It’s true that Drop shipping eliminates wait times when products are shipped from the distributor or manufacturer to the merchant. There can be cases wherein this can be a few weeks. With drop shipping, a merchant can start selling the moment the product is published on his site.

3. New Product Lines to be explored

Drop shipping gives merchants a way to test new products without having to bring in inventory. It’s just adding categories and product lists to his site!

4. Reduced Investment

Merchants employing a drop shipping strategy don’t have to keep products in inventory. Quite simply, since drop-shipping agreements generally do not require any upfront investment, a retailer can significantly reduce his investment in products and focus on marketing his site.

This literally means that some online store start-ups don’t need as much money as one might think to get up and sell products / services.

5. More Time Saved

In a drop shipping arrangement, the retailer does not receive, stack, store, pull, pack, or ship products. All of these tasks are time consuming, which means drop shipping saves time.

In a startuponline site where the storeowner may also be the dispatcher, this additional time will be available to actually sell more products, which should benefit his venture.

PrestaShop & DropShipping

PrestaShop DropShipping module is custom built by eGrove Systems to actually benefit the merchant as well as customer, with automated processing of the order and the customer receives his products well in time! DropShipper Module can be Downloaded for PrestaShop from here

For more details contact sales@egrovesys.com

WordPress and BuddyPress

admin — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 10:45:35 +0000

WordPress & BuddyPress Overview

Oh well, I have always wanted users to register up on my site and create a base for my clients. That way I am assured of regular hits and get to gain a few of the competitive ads on my site. It was then I got to know the real know-how of this BuddyPress feature and gosh this is just amazing. With BuddyPress, you can let users register on your site, make friends, chat and just do whatever you wish to get them together.

It could be a blog they can post up or patch up with friends and even more, there are really good Buddy Press Developers in the mart, who can actually get things working out for you the way you need them. Further, aside the buddy press feature, there are a couple of blogs that I own on WordPress and have always wondered if it could be possible to integrate both these seamlessly together. And LOL it did happen! There is a WordPress Plug-in that I did install in using the features with ease.

The plug-in that I choose for my BuddyPress site were too good and could be installed on the WordPress Dashboard with ease. And for the newbie who desire to take a look at what this could be all about, there are demos that are offered and make your way through the test drive and then select the one that is best ideal for you.

Product Review & Google Snippet SEO Boost

admin — Mon, 07 May 2012 05:56:01 +0000

So, you are on the look to increase your page ranks and get your e-commerce website pipe ahead the rest of your competitors. Yes, most of us indeed concentrate on the exact phrase of ‘how to’ get across the barriers of competition and get ranked high the most. Prestashop rich snippets is one unique tool that help you gain a successful ranking by means of reviews and product views that are gained by customer favor. Increase your Google SEO position and traffic for the various products that are offered with the use of relevant and rich Product Review & Google Snippet SEO Boost that works precisely to deliver the CTR and rank you just wanted in time!

Take a more closer look at these prestashop google snippets as you are offered the complete benefit of monitoring the reviews at your convenience. Get going great with the third party widget enabled functionality that helps you install codes of your choice and thus display your ‘unique’ functional features in the module you desire.

Get it all rated up! Configure the texts and the rating scales with custom defined units or upload an icon of your choice or match it up to serve the season and fever. Accept reviews as a whole, else if you are on the look for an easier work out, automate acceptance or delete ones that you do not wish to retain.

Your business is definitely going to be global and take advantage of the multi lingual interface that works out precisely to post up reviews in the languages desired. Further, patch up with the facebook feature that integrates the ‘like’ button along with options for the users to transfer them to their wall and share it with ease.

Expand your business and customize the pages that you wish to display to get rated up. With the all new PrestaShop front office Module, you are sure to get enhance your position rankings and the conversion rates. Pick up Product Review & Google Snippet SEO Boost and get ranked the right way ever!!

Click here to Know More About the Module In Our Ecommerce Store, ModuleBazaar.com

DEMO of the Module:

Is it safe to Purchase in Ecommerce Stores?

admin — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 13:35:26 +0000

The number of ecommerce stores is increasing exponentially and every single day, a new business is starting an online store. While customers are inclined towards online shopping which is far more convenient, their concern for safety should be respected. Despite the popularity of ecommerce stores, a vast percentage of the population is still skeptical about giving away credit card details and bank details for making online purchases. It is safe to purchase through ecommerce stores as long as the store users a reliable and secure credit card payment processor.

Different types of payment platforms are now available to help ecommerce stores to manage finances better. Whether you choose prestashop, magento, or joomla virtuemart, it is your responsibility to ensure safety for customers who are willing to give their financial information to purchase products from your website. It is also the responsibility of the ecommerce store to explicitly state their privacy and security policy on the website so that customers can understand what they are signing up for.

All online transactions that are initiated from ecommerce stores should go through secure servers. Using reliable ecommerce services vendor products will ensure that your customers’ information is safe. While using payment gateways, the ecommerce stores should not store customers’ credit card information or addresses. In fact, it is against the law to store these information in unsecure servers on which websites are hosted. The ecommerce stores should obtain SSI certification and follow the rules precisely to ensure safety of transactions. The payment processor chosen for the ecommerce store should be PCI complaint which ensures that highest possible degree of security is guaranteed while processing payments. Buyers should never be put in financial risk for purchasing products from you and that is why choosing the right payment processor is essential to guarantee safe online transactions.

PrestaShop Addons – PrestaShop PayPal Pro UK 3D secure module

admin — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 06:06:12 +0000

You have designed your store to attract visitors and convert them into customers. Now let’s give them a unique shopping experience. It’s time to update your store with PrestaShop PayPal Pro UK 3D secure Module is designed to seamlessly integrate with the latest veriosn of PrestaShop eCommerce Software. This upgrade is to ensure increased sales.

Unique features of PrestaShop PayPal Pro 3D secure module

3D Secure is a protocol developed to advance the security of Internet payments, to ease the likelihood of fraud via supported cards and to look up transaction performance. This Module is compatible with PrestaShop ecommerce Version 1.3 – Latest version of the PrestaShop.

Managing transactions ensure the success of ecommerce packages. PrestaShop PayPal Pro 3D secure module is designed to support, Authorize & Capture, Authorize only and Capture later features. The Module also facilitates cancel/void any unsettled transactions. It has an inbuilt feature to configure the amount that can be deemed fit for refund, should the situation arise.

Features of PrestaShop PayPal Pro UK 3D secure

PrestaShop PayPal Pro 3D secure is power packed and feature rich. Some of the features enable the module to

Accept Credit Card payments through 3D secure PayPal API.
Enable Store Owners to easily configure the module to ‘Authorization and Capture’ or ‘Authorization only and Capture later’ – when the products are ready for shipment.
Empower Store Owners to capture amount directly from configuration page.
Enable Store Owners to void/cancel unsettled transactions or refund full / partial order amountright from configuration page.
Support Shipping with Merchant Calculated Shipping Rates and Carrier Calculation with Shipping.
Update Users and Orders info in the PrestaShop module.
Process orders using PrestaShop Admin UI.
Manage Multi-language display for the PayPal API Hosted Page in PrestaShop Admin UI.

If you chose to install PrestaShop PayPal Pro 3D secure, we have thoughtfully created a demo to help you…
Click Here for Free Demo

Download PrestaShop PayPal Pro UK 3D secure

For installation Process and Support, Click Here

PrestaShop Cosmetics Beauty Shop Template – ModuleBazaar.com

admin — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:21:30 +0000

Now a Cosmetics PrestaShop theme from eGrove Systems designed for the Angels! Wow!
It’s high time to spice up your PrestaShop targeting the gentle species…an online Beauty store for women with a flavor for class.

SheSpeaks.com conducted a great survey of women’s online and computer habits, and published the results in a comprehensive 65-page document. It’s a fascinating study that looks mainly at women’s social habits online, and most definitely has implications for online marketing. Looking at the results of this study can help you tailor your marketing campaigns to effectively, rather than ineffectively, reach out to women.

Shopping & Social

Not surprisingly, the top activity for women online is shopping. The third most popular activity is social networking, which is also not a surprise given the stereotype that women just love to talk. The fact that both of these activities are very popular with women means that there is also some cross-over issues to consider. If women like to shop online, they’re likely to talk about that online and there are probably certain kinds of marketing tactics that will work better with them.

What does a well groomed lady look for when shopping online?

* She looks for a clean design.
* The product(s) that she looks for should be neatly presented.
* She may not prefer complex designs or navigation.
* And she should find it easy to take a decision and to “Add” to her shopping cart.

If you are looking for an elegantly designed template exclusive for an online cosmetics shop look no further. A clean design to showcase cosmetics. Easy navigation… and tempting to buy!

This new theme form eGrove systems is designed this professionally PrestaShop theme to accommodate online perfume shops, perfume stores, makeup shop… whatever be the name… this is it! One of the best cosmetic themes designed!!
Like all other templates from eGrove Systems, this template too can be customized to blend and seamlessly integrate with your online shop.

This theme has an inbuilt slide-show module and attractive banner slots to highlight products and service options. It is also designed with the Top Brands Module, Customized footer links module for CMS pages and My Account footer links. Additionally this module has even got a subscription option in the home page for Newsletters from the store.

Click here to know more about the Cosmetic Beauty Shop Theme
(Live DEMO, Compatibility and Installation Support Included)

About eGrove systems and PrestaShop

PrestaShop Themes are brought to you by eGrove Systems Corporation, a PrestaShop Certified Partner and with a team of expert PrestaShop Developers adept in PrestaShop Module Development thoughtfully designing and delivering Premium PrestaShop Modules, Add-ons, Themes and Templates that add to the look `n feel that empowers your PrestaShop online stores.
eGrove Systems brings to you its unrivaled strength in developing eCommerce modules especially the Payment Gateway integration and Payment gateway modules. eGrove Systems portfolio includes design and development of eCommerce promotional & marketing extensions, shipping modules, Social Media Modules, Analytics Modules and other Front Office Feature modules.

eGrove Systems is a Software Design & Development facility managed by a team of software professionals with more than 2 decades of experience reaching out and winning customer confidence worldwide.

PrestaShop Product Instant Search and Ajax Filter Module

admin — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:42:17 +0000

PrestaShop Flexi Product Search Module & Filter is a PrestaShop Filter Add-on with Advanced Search & PrestaShop Product Filter features designed for ecommerce sites to handle heavy loads. This PrestaShop Search Module is designed with the user in mind. To ensure unique shopping experience, the Admin module has been designed to accommodate all possible settings and features. Some of the filter criteria offered in this PrestaShop Advanced Search module includes powerful yet simple and captivating AJAX filters to filter

* Products in Alphabetical order
* Chose products by the Alphabetical range
* By Manufacturers name or brand
* By categories
* By price range
* By pre‐defined price ranges
* Products based on features.

Unique features have also been included in this PrestaShop Product Filter to ensure hassle free product or service selection. Using any or combination of the above mentioned PrestaShop Products Filter, the users can virtually select the product that they chose to, with utmost ease.
The products can be added with attributes that will ensure that the user knows what the site has in stock.
Watch Search and Filter Module DEMO VIDEO

Feature Packed PrestaShop Filter Add-on – Administrative Configuration Panel Settings

* Positioning the filter blocks can be configured by the admin by choosing either the left or right hooks.
* PrestaShop Filter Add-on have individual blocks for each of the filter criteria like Manufacturer, Prince Range, and Product Category etc.
* The entire range of individual blocks is based on according feature which enables the collapse and expanding of blocks on the fly.
* One of the interesting features of these PrestaShop Flexi Search Module filters is that all the values used for filters listed in the individual blocks are hyperlinked and the block will be listed only if the block or all the attributes are enabled.

Why PrestaShop Product Search & Filter Module
Intense brainstorming and study of user purchase behavior has been the backbone of the PrestaShop Product Search & Filter Module.
This PrestaShop Advanced Search Module release contains features that redefine the user’s online shopping experience.

* Product Search & Filter module can be installed and configured with utmost ease.
* Flexible Administrative Configuration Panel of the PrestaShop Flexi Search Module ensures that the Admin can configure the best suited options for the users to search or to filter products.
* Products can be filtered by name in the Alphabetical order, Product Name Alphabet Range Filters, name of the manufacturer, Product Categories, price range based on inputs for the user which includes the minimum and maximum range and also by pre‐defined price range as configured by the Administrator using the Administrative Configuration Panel Settings of the PrestaShop Search Module.
* Products can also be filtered by features using the product attributes.
* The PrestaShop advanced search module uses the agile PrestaShop AJAX filter technology to list the products in search result almost instantaneously as they are clicked or selected at filter box.

Admin configuration settings of the PrestaShop Flexi Search Module

* To position the Filter Block.
* To display the keyword in the Search box based on the item selected in the Filter block
* To set the maximum number of Search Results Displayed per page, when a search result contains more products that can be displayed on a single page.
* To set the default Sort order for Search Results to be displayed.

Click Here for Free Demo

Download PrestaShop Flexi Product Search & Filter Module

For installation Process and Support, Click Here

New PrestaShop Themes and Modules to be Certified

admin — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:39:47 +0000

eGrove Systems is all set to launch innovative PrestaShop Modules.

Bookmark this post to know more about these modules.

PrestaShop Modules yet to be approved by PrestaStore:

Admin Order Management

* Prestashop Order Management Module empowers the Administrator to create orders on behalf of customers while taking orders over phone.
* This module also facilitate administrator to login as Customer in front end on behalf of customer and create orders in the website.
* The admin can then make orders using any of the specified offline Payments or Payment information over phone. The orders can be processed upon realizing the payment.
* This module also enables the administrator to update orders that are already made to offer discounts to customers for their orders placed earlier. This module can help create a discount voucher and update the order and send new invoice and email notifications to customers.
* The Admin can also edit the order products using the order edit feature in Back end.

Facebook – Complete Pack

Facebook Complete Pack – Social Connect Facebook module lets your customers to connect them from your website to Facebook through API.
* The user can sign-in or login to your website using their Facebook account. They can promote your product information to Facebook for you using the Facebook like Social plug-in, Facebook share Social plug-in and post to their Facebook wall on order confirmation about their product purchase.
* This module also facilitates Social Follow us link i.e. Follow us on Facebook – link to your Facebook page.
* Social Connect Facebook module uses four different blocks that can be used individually or as combined features.
1. * Connect Social plug-in
2. * Like and Share Social Plug-in
3. * Find us Plug-in
4. * Post to your Facebook Wall
  1. Fashion Store Prestashop Theme helps you to establish your online presence with a professional looking website with captivating layout options to display your Fashion products.
  2. The Fashion Store Prestashop Theme has exclusive banner slideshow, easy top navigational links for category and sub-categories, top short cut menu and exclusive modules for banner ads, popular brands logo display, Home page banner ads blocks, customized footer links module and customized home page newsletter sign-up module. This theme also have customized wizard images for 5 page checkout process and can also support for one page checkout option.
  1. Camera Shop Prestashop Theme is designed for cameras, electronics and mobile stores with a good looking Grey & Green theme. Simple, yet clean & clear interface to give a professional look.
  2. * It is designed to provide maximum space to display your products with a full width slideshow in home page.
  3. * This theme has been tailor madefor camera stores, electronic stores, mobile stores and general eCommerce stores.
  4. * Camera Shop Prestashop Theme also has a top menu with drop downs using JQuery, exclusive module for advertisement banner display in home page, simple look & feel for checkout pages and special modules for category browsing navigational block.