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AI and Retail Industry: How Machine Learning Affects SMBs

Artificial intelligence, as well as its subset machine learning, aren’t accurately brand new concepts — they have been around longer than one would imagine. Nonetheless, the fact remains that their emergence on the scene is relatively recent. And yet, more and more companies are already using both of these highly advanced technologies for their benefit in myriad ways. Take the retail industry for example; thanks to their innate proficiency with data analysis, artificial intelligence, and machine learning have become virtually indispensable for businesses operating in this space, especially SMBs.

One of the most easily identifiable examples in this regard is the Point of Sale system. With assistance from machine learning and artificial intelligence, the retail world is finally leveraging customer data collected via Magento point of sale system to gain access to incredible insights. However, the fortification of POS systems is just one example of artificial intelligence and machine learning stand to help small and medium businesses in the retail industry. And for a better perspective of their true potential, we have collated a list of some more compelling ways in which AI and ML enhance retail businesses’ daily operations and more.

1. A better understanding of customers: Nothing helps a company improve sales and grow its business quite like an in-depth understanding of the customers it serves. While that may have been hard to do in the past, AI and ML have made it a cakewalk. Among other things, these technologies can make use of all the retailers’ data, including that related to customers’ location, spending behavior as well as the business’ inventory, to serve their customers better via things like developing tailored offers, creating novel experiences, and pace optimization.

2. Enhanced efficiency: For a business to run smoothly and at optimal productivity, it is vital to master backend operations. So, here, AI and ML help by allowing retailers to factor in popular products, demand, inventory, and more to ensure they can maintain just the ideal list that will enable them to serve not only their in-store customers but also the ones they serve via online stores, if at all.

3. Personalized customer experiences: If there’s one thing retailers know about customers today, it’s that they have a dominant preference for customized experiences. Research has shown that 80 percent concede that a personalized experience is something that would make them come back to an establishment. And with all the insight, AI and ML can glean from the retailer’s data, delivering experiences tailored to the customer’s tastes and preferences is quite simple.

The retail industry is evolving at a dizzying pace and will continue to do so — at least for the foreseeable future. While that is a challenging thing, one can’t ignore the abundance of opportunities such change is bound to bring with it. And if retailers, SMBs in particular, wish to keep pace with their large scale contemporaries in the market, the use of modern technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning is an absolute must.




Ben Locke Posted on February 18th, 2020

Migrating From Magento 1 To Magento 2: Top Mistakes To Watch Out For

Magento is a highly popular e-commerce platform. It is used by millions of digital stores all over the world. And while it is an inherently high-quality resource, among the most advanced in the market, the fact remains that changing times mean that our tools should too. It is why the company went on to introduce Magento 2, which offers a world of benefits, such as a substantially improved interface for the admin, accelerated page speed, independent database, and enhanced search functionality among several other such features. So, it should not come as a surprise to learn that nearly 30,000 websites have already transitioned to Magento 2.



Now, all that is great and the benefits are many, but before you decide or start working on making a similar decision, you should know that switching from Magento 1 to Magento 2 is not a simple endeavor. While the complexities of the process are admittedly not many, many companies seem to struggle with it. Why? Because of mistakes, some are human errors, while others are errors of ignorance. Nonetheless, the fact remains that they take a toll on the project, process, and, eventually, the outcome. To help make sure that your transition is successful, we have listed some of the most common mistakes folks tend to make with this transition, so you can be wise and ensure that you don’t repeat them.

1. Lack of strategy: Planning is the key to ensuring success in every endeavor in life. And given that switching to Magento 2 from Magento 1 is a slightly complicated effort, it only makes sense that one carefully strategizes the process. Jumping into the transition process without planning the migration, including the design and website data, as well as looking for extensions that would be compatible with your set up, migrating your store’s custom code, is a recipe for disaster.
2. Ignoring changes to the internal workflow: You’d be surprised to learn just how many people forget to factor in the impact of the transition on the business’ workflow. Seriously. So, make sure that you account for the changes required to the workflow, the effect on employees, and more. It will allow every department to be sufficiently prepared to embrace the change without taking a toll on the operations.
3. Overlook impact on SEO rankings: When one migrates from Magento 1 to Magento 2, there are bound to be snags, like duplication of content, changed URLs, broken links, and more. And we don’t have to tell you just how quickly this can take a toll on the store’s SEO rankings and SERP performance. Thankfully, you can deal with it by using a webmaster tool to identify all the Error 404 pages. There are multiple other workarounds to such challenges, so rest assured.

Magento coders who hold ample experience with the platform would rightly tell you just how beneficial making the switch to Magento 2 is. Sure, there are some challenges to be dealt with on the way, but with their expertise and careful planning, the transition can be wrapped up sooner than you’d imagine.


Ben Locke Posted on January 2nd, 2020

Magento Commerce vs Salesforce Commerce Cloud: How Are They Different?

As people increasingly turn to the internet to shop for whatever it is that they need, so are retailers, for that is where the demand seems to be concentrated at the moment. As a result, e-commerce today is significant than ever before and is expected to continue growing at an unprecedented pace for the foreseeable future. It has enabled many companies that run brick and mortar stores to embrace this digital revolution, irrelevant to the extent. There’s an immense demand for relevant solutions that can enable high quality, seamless experiences while also empowering businesses to power through the cut-throat competition in this space.

The search for an ace solution in this regard often leads people to a choice between Magento Commerce and Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Why? Simply because these two are the absolute champions in the e-commerce platform market, helping companies to set up robust offerings and also ensure their growth. However, choosing between the two can be quite a challenge since both of them are highly accomplished names that come equipped with largely very distinct features and functionalities. So, we put together a quick comparison between Magento and Salesforce’s offerings to help make a choice slightly accessible for you.
1. Magento Commerce
a. Advantages
It delivers in-built capabilities and that too, without any extra costs or investment. These abilities are highly relevant for commercial and B2B setups. It comes in equally handy when a multi-brand or international company is involved.
Magento makes it unbelievably easy to manage product catalogs as well as data, thanks to a plethora of features and functionalities in this regard as well.
b. Disadvantages
It is a complicated system that necessitates the assistance and guidance of professionals with ample experience with web servers and databases.

Magento’s celebrated agility also translates into prolonged configuration and set up durations and also takes far too long to import data.

1. Salesforce Commerce Cloud
a. Advantages
Since it is a SaaS-based, fully managed platform, things like maintenance of platform as well as that of servers and other infrastructure and upgrades are Salesforce’s responsibility.
It comes with an extendable page designer feature that empowers merchants with significantly better control over both templates as well as the content.
b. Disadvantages
Salesforce Commerce Cloud is a costly offering, typically aimed at big corporates. So, it is not the ideal fit for small and medium scale businesses.
The license fee for this service involves paying Salesforce a percentage of the business’ online sales. The typically ranges anywhere from 0.75 to 1.25 percent.
While this Magento vs. Salesforce guide aims to help you be sure which one of the two is better suited for your business, one must not forget that the final call is highly subjective. So, no matter if you choose to hire a Magento eCommerce solution provider company or one for Salesforce, make sure that you carefully consider each option’s pros and cons in the context of your business’ requirements before making the decision.

Ben Locke Posted on December 13th, 2019

Banking and Finance Industry: How Business Intelligence Can Help

The world around us now is increasingly embracing the idea of leveraging big data to achieve insights that can drive better business results. Also known as business intelligence, this phenomenon has taken the world by storm, thanks to its sheer potential to transform businesses for the better. It is because, among other things, business intelligence empowers executives to access data in a simple to understand manner and then base business decisions on this data and analysis. And given that 90 percent of all the data in the world was generated only in the past couple of years, one doesn’t have to worry about the dearth of data in this context too.

It holds for all industries! And, therefore it is why no matter where you turn, you will find a company that is already making use of business intelligence to drive unprecedented levels of growth. Hence, it isn’t surprising to see that BI has managed to rouse the banking and finance industry’s interest as well. And as competition continues to intensify by the minute, it is imperative for companies operating in this sector to make use of the latest tools to ensure that they can remain ahead of the curve. Hence, this industry's intrigue for BI. Now, let’s take a look at some of the most compelling ways in which this nifty technology can help this sector.

  1. Better products and services: One of the most significant advantages of business intelligence is that it allows companies to keep an eye on every revenue stream individually to help identify their best-performing products and services. Additionally, companies are also able to analyze data to understand their customers’ requirements and preferences, which can be used to improve the business’ offerings further.
  2. Cut down risks: A very compelling benefit of BI in banking and finance is that it can be used to reduce the risks substantially. It involves simplifying the actionable data. It enables companies to identify fraud and monitor customer behavior as well as track employee behavior to ensure compliance with all the requisite laws and regulations. What BI also does here provides data about other tangential aspects of the industry, such as the market’s economic situation, analysis of credit portfolios, and more.
  3. Enhance operations: How a company operates internally also has a bearing on the business’ success. And to this end, BI helps companies to carefully examine their processes, employee performance, and resource allocation, among several other things. To be precise, BI provides the required data that allows organizations to understand where and how to optimize the efficiency of operations, deliver better customer experiences, cut down costs, and more.
While all of this may seem a tad overwhelming to some at first, but the truth is with the right business intelligence solution provider, it won’t take you long to start reaping the virtually limitless benefits of this superior technology. So, go on and get started with using business intelligence to enhance operational efficacy, better manage risk, and so much more.

Ben Locke Posted on November 11th, 2019

Why Every Retail Business Needs a POS System

There is absolutely no dearth of challenging businesses in the world: Take retail, for example. Besides being an inherently demanding form of business practice, retail is surrounded by a plethora of tiny little factors that must be monitored and overseen at all times. Some may say, one doesn’t have to do ALL of those seemingly exigent things necessarily — but the truth is, if a retail business is going to survive the ruthless competition that the market throws your way, this is the only way. However, there are, of course, an abundance of tools in the world today that can pretty much tend to every requirement and need a business can face. Moreover, one such resource is POS.

A point of sale system, or only POS system, comes bearing immense potential to transform retail business virtually; starting from detailed receipts and significantly expanded list of advanced payment options to inventory and employee management, there’s just no limit to how these systems can help a retail business. So you see, POS systems are so much more than mere cash registers and if you are still not convinced, here are some advantages that further make a case for using a POS system in your retail business.

1. Improved efficiency: A POS system in a retail set up allows the business to, among other things, substantially improve productivity. How? It is quite simple, really; with such a system, employees have just the right tools that serve to support them while they execute their duties. It, in turn, means operations run much more smoothly, if not entirely seamless. Also, you know what that translates into? Better customer satisfaction rates.

2. Better inventory management: As mentioned above, POS technology isn’t just a fancy cash register. They come loaded with unusual inventory management abilities, allowing businesses to keep an eye on the quantity of every product in the store. Companies can also set up a retail matrix as well as reorder triggers to streamline their inventory management processes.

3. Analytics, insights, and reporting: One of any POS tool’s most potent abilities is in the context of analytics and reporting-based capabilities. A robust system will provide the business with real-time data, empower it to track key performance indicators closely, and other insights to help executives decide if the company needs to adapt to factors like market, consumer demand, and more to achieve better profits and retain a competitive edge over rivals.

4. Efficient management of employees: POS systems save you from the chore of manually scheduling shifts as well as implementing them. In addition to that, they also allow you to track employee productivity.

POS systems are genuinely versatile — helping retail businesses to attain significantly better productivity, enhance the efficiency of operations, reduce costs, and improve the bottom line. However, the system you choose for your business must not be taken lightly and should factor in every last detail. So if you find yourself looking for assistance to implement a Magento point of sale system or that of any other provider, you can always turn to a trusted service provider to help you out with that.


Ben Locke Posted on September 3rd, 2019

Why You Should Use Cloud Mobile Apps for Your Business

For the longest time, apps primarily existed as native apps, meaning users had to download the app on their devices to use it. However, we all know that the progression of time has driven the exponential growth of technology, which, in turn, has given the world with countless invaluable resources, including cloud technology. Moreover, there isn’t anything in the world that has been able to truly leverage the potential of cloud computing quite as mobile apps have. Today, cloud-based mobile applications are benefiting both parties: The companies that make them and the people who use these apps.

Among other things, cloud mobile apps have enhanced the security of data involved in the process and also made it easier to access this data. Suffice it to say that the cloud technology in the context of mobile apps and their development has transformed the entire process. And not only that radically cloud computing has also revolutionized how companies do business and go about their general operations. For those who are still not convinced, here are some more reasons why you need to use cloud mobile apps for your business.

1. Low cost: Anyone who is even vaguely familiar with the world of app development and its basic concepts, would know that native mobile app development isn’t exactly the most affordable option in the market. Plus, if you want to target both iOS and Android, you will be required to build two apps. There’s no such issue with cloud mobile apps, i.e. once the app is created, it works on both of them wholly. What makes things even better is that the development cost of cloud-based mobile apps is significantly lower.

2. Time savings: The development timeline is a critical part of the project, and you will end up saving much time with a mobile cloud app as compared to when you set out to build a native app. Also, you won’t have to make it twice if you want to target a second platform.

3. Smooth database integration: Any business owner will tell you that the ability to integrate their app with their databases is Moreover, vital to ensure seamless operations. Integration with databases can prove to be quite a task if you are working with a native app. However, this process is considerably less complicated when it comes to cloud mobile apps. Why? Because of the simple fact that data is synced via a cloud-based server.

4. No installation required: This is one of the basic facts about cloud mobile apps — they don’t need to be installed on the user’s device. Instead, users who wish to engage with a cloud mobile app needs a mobile browser, where they’ll be able to see the app’s interface and use it.

So, be it custom applications for iPhone or one for an Android device, the future is on the cloud. Their inherent benefits apart, the need and demand for cloud mobile apps are being further fortified with the advent of IoT.


Ben Locke Posted on August 30th, 2019

How Blockchain Technology is Revolutionizing Real Estate in 2019?


Importance of Blockchain

Blockchain is a crucial technological advancement that connects multiple units of information in one chain. It gained its popularity a decade ago when it was created to support the cryptocurrency bitcoin. Blockchain technology is influencing almost every industry by transforming it through various ways, and the real estate industry is one of them. Real estate is one of the paper-record based industry which includes record storage documentation for contracts, leases, maintenance, compliances, and many more. It involves the exchange of various documents and lacks attributes such as synchronization, security, integrity, and more.

What if a technological masterpiece could address all such challenges and makes the real estate industry much more convenient and accessible? Let’s discuss how the utilization of blockchain technology in the real estate sector could help increase transparency and efficiency.

Multiple Listing Service

The primary issue for real estate brokers and agents is the convenience to access data and to have a transparent ledger system where one could see the entire transaction history of the property. The up-gradation of the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) database to a blockchain-enabled data indexes every available property in the city. It allows data to appear in real-time in a simple and easy-to-use format.

Automated and Secure Smart Contracts

It is of no wonder that real estate transactions can take months and years to get accomplished. Sales using smart contract will cut-off all the middlemen. Just imagine how much money and time can be saved by eliminating all the middlemen - banks, brokers, attorneys, and more. Smart Contracts transaction is completed entirely between the seller and the buyer and involves no human interaction.

Tokenization in Real Estate

Previously, owning the remunerative assets required the investment from wealthy investors, and gradually, buyers wait for years till the property get liquidate. It changes with tokenization as it will not only increase the liquidity of traditionally illiquid assets but will also make trading possible without third-party intervention. Tokenization is a term used for the digital representation of a real estate. That means it makes it easy to purchase property with digital currency investments. Also, having tokenizing platforms for real estate could amalgamate all the processes and transactions. Therefore, it saves broker fees and closing costs and completes the entire purchase in a day rather than waiting over several days or weeks.

Decentralization

Blockchain is a decentralized technology that enhances trust and security. The information stored inside a blockchain is accessible to all the peers on the network. So, the data becomes transparent for everyone who is the part of the web, and no one can tamper it because of its cryptographic hash function usage. It builds a more confident system as all the information can be verified by peers, sellers, and buyers from anywhere in the world. Hence, such technological advancement would also decrease fraud attempts making the transactions more robust.

The future of blockchain is beyond imagination as it is changing the approach of the real estate industry. With the increasing awareness of blockchain technology amongst real estate professionals, one can witness the potential growth of blockchain technology. Hence, the above benefits must be considered while choosing a company for property website development.





Ben Locke Posted on August 29th, 2019

Why Choose Drupal for Your Enterprise Website?

Have you ever wondered about what makes the websites of enterprise so prominent? The success of any enterprise website lies in the selection of right Content Management Systems (CMS). Now, the question arises, What CMS would be the best choice for your enterprise’s website? Drupal is known to be an ideal CMS for a large number of renowned global companies worldwide. It is a web content management software, especially for custom application development.

According to the recent report, the number of active enterprise websites tracked on Drupal is 614,752. With the ever-changing digital landscape, consumers are demanding more powerful web experiences. Drupal can build a tremendous personalized website that’s optimized for different devices and integrates with all your marketing tools. Some of the famous sites, namely, NASA, eBay, Twitter, Pinterest, Australian Government, Taboola, NCAA, Tesla, and many more have been built using Drupal.

In this article, we will discuss conventional as well as unconventional reasons, which make Drupal an excellent CMS for you:

What are the Unconventional Reasons to Opt for Drupal?

Better Presentation with Headless Drupal

With the rising popularity of decoupled (headless) architecture, Drupal offers cutting-edge user experience. It provides greater flexibility to the developers to innovate and integrate it with other technologies.

More Personalization with Predictive UX

It is a known fact that 65% of consumers are more likely to purchase at an online or offline store if they receive personalized and relevant promotions. Predictive UX extracts the potential of machine learning to anticipate the user’s need, which delivers them explicit and exclusive personalized content when in need.

Chatbots Drive Business Value

Chatbots are transforming CMS to next-generation digital experience and user engagement. It provides conversational UI that communicates with the user. Drupal helps Chabot API to integrate with your website seamlessly.

Mobile Ready

Increasing usage of mobility devices opens a door for new marketing platforms for enterprises. Drupal presents the content in the desired format for different mobile devices.

What are the Conventional Reasons to Choose Drupal?

Easy to Build

It is of no wonder that too much complexity in web development may prove to be time-consuming. When using Drupal, it becomes easy to create and customize (if required). Choosing the layout, themes, and more are just a click away for your Drupal websites.

Security

Security is one of the critical needs of every business. More and more malware attacks are overwhelming every year. However, Drupal websites have proven records of being the most secure CMS. It safeguards you from online hacking attacks.

Higher Scalability

The major strength of this platform is its exceptional scalability. You can add as many pages new pages to your website without changing anything. As various communities of people use Drupal, it has a variety of different modules that helps you add specific features or functionality with similar capabilities which are free to download. Moreover, it is license-free and involves no maintenance costs.

SEO Friendly

SEO plays a vital role in achieving the goal of an organization. Drupal helps companies to create SEO friendly websites. Active Modules and clean code make it an exceptional SEO friendly CMS.

Outstanding Templates

Drupal has a massive community of theme designers that focuses on creating feature-rich templates. The list of options provides you to select models that align with your website vision. It includes fonts, aesthetics, layouts, graphics, flexible color schemes, and more.

Drupal offers the scope to build scalable solutions, ranging from a personal blog to corporate website and e-commerce platforms as per your need. Hence,

web application development using Drupal gives your enterprise the features and flexibility to innovate as per your user (visitor) preferences and behavior.





Ben Locke Posted on July 29th, 2019

React Native vs Flutter: Which One Should You Pick for Your Hybrid Mobile App?

Evolved customer demands and expectations, together with the evolution of technology, has led the world to newer avenues of business. One such channel that is rather popular these days is cross-platform app development. However, for it to successfully deliver on all that it promises, it is essential that we choose the framework exceptionally carefully.

Companies that are planning to build a new mobile app for their business, no matter the industry they are a part of, seek robust solutions that will ease the process, reduce the time taken to write the code, and deliver a high quality and efficient product at the end. This search leads them to the seemingly impossible choice between two highly sought-after frameworks: React Native and Flutter. If you too are on the same boat, allow this handy comparison of some of their most crucial aspects to help you decide which one is better suited for your project as well as business.

1. Development time: React Native is widely considered as among the most dependable frameworks for a variety of reasons. One of them is the fact that it is quite efficacious and substantially lowers the development time with a variety of ready-to-use provisions. Besides that, it also enhances the app’s UI. Compared to React Native, Flutter demands a lot more time for development. It misses the handy components but does make up for it with the delivery of superior usability of the app.

2. Stability: For a mobile app to deliver optimum performance, the framework’s security is necessary. In this context, React Native gets the support of a robust global community. Moreover, it’s very consistent, as well. Flutter, on the other hand, lags behind React Native even though by a minimal margin. While it's Alpha version left something to be desired, the Beta 2 version manages to deliver a slew of first-rate features.

3. Code structure: Flutter has a clear advantage here since it doesn’t segregate style, templates, and data — a highly convenient approach. It also doesn’t necessitate additional templating languages or specific visual tools while creating a layout.

4. Performance: React Native’s architecture necessitates a JS bridge for an app to interact with native components, thus slowing down the application. Though, Flutter helps development teams to create quick apps since it doesn’t need a bridge and can run animations at 60 frames per second.

However, React Native hasn’t lost this race yet, for it does come loaded with libraries that allow apps made using this framework to achieve a speed of 60 frames per second when it comes to animations.
This discussion serves as a solid proof of why companies would find themselves confused between React Native and Flutter as the framework for developing their cross-platform app. Both these options are accompanied by an individual set of benefits and drawbacks, so the ultimate choice should be based after you have factored in your needs as well. So, remember, no matter which one of these two you go with, hiring a trusted hybrid mobile app development company will go a long way in ensuring the success of your project.


Ben Locke Posted on July 24th, 2019

How Big Data Analytics Have Transformed E-Commerce

It is hard to ignore the fact that pretty much every step we take, every little thing we do, we are generating data. It is because we live in a highly digital world and rely on a mobile device for a sizeable a portion of our lives. However, what becomes of all this data? Well, that's where big data analytics comes in. It has enabled businesses across virtually every industry in the world to analyze copious amounts of data to determine customer behavior patterns and their preferences, trends in the market, and other insights to help them adapt their strategies.

From healthcare to manufacturing, there's not a single industry that hasn't derived immense benefits from it. However, if we were to speak of one sector that is primed to reap extraordinary benefits from big data analytics, it is e-commerce. Why? First, it is a primarily digital industry. Second, its growth. A report said the e-commerce the industry would reach $4.5 trillion in 2021. Another study revealed that about 54 percent millennials shop online. The sector has already observed mind-boggling growth, and it doesn't look like it will be slowing down any time soon. It continues to generate an exponential amount of data every day and to utilize it effectively, and the industry needs big data analytics.

To help you get a better sense of how robust big data analytics is, let's see how it has benefitted e-commerce so far.

1. Better shopping experience: Among other things, big data allows e-commerce businesses to understand their customers' buying patterns, their requirements, and more. Besides that, it also allows companies to effectively manage inventory by customers' demographic details, the time frame where they are better inclined to shop, and their purchasing patterns. It, in turn, ensures the delivery of a whole shopping experience every single time.

2. Improved sales: Thanks to customer behavior analysis, e-commerce businesses have been able to gainfully present customers with recommendations and offers tailored to their taste and preferences. They also gain insights that allow them to implement marketing campaigns, offering discounts, coupons, and more based on the individual buyer's shopping history. All of this goes a long way in attracting more customers and converting them into successful sales.

3. Enhanced customer service: The primary goal of any business is to ensure customer satisfaction. With big data by their side, e-commerce companies can tend to their customers' every need nearly immediately and keep them apprised of any new deals -- and all these factors ensure that your customers are 100 percent content with what you have to offer.

So, we learned that big data analytics could help e-commerce players in so many different ways: from analyzing customer behavior and preferences for enabling companies to formulate strategies that will help them grow. It's easy to see just how versatile and resourceful big data analytics is in the context of this industry. So if you too want to implement it for your business, we recommend you to get in touch with a trusted vendor for eCommerce website development services at the earliest possible.



Ben Locke Posted on July 17th, 2019