4 ways a secure Payment Gateway bolsters your marketing campaign

With credit card frauds and security breaches on the rise, it's important to impart a layer of security to any online transactions conducted via your website. Otherwise, you might risk losing business from security-conscious customers who'll switch to a more secure option instead. When running an online business, one of the foremost things you need to cross off your checklist is setting up the right Online Payment Gateway on your site. Read on to know how it carries multiple advantages.

What is it?

A Payment Gateway is a service application that authorizes credit/debit card payments or online transactions playing a vital role in authorizing the payment between the seller and the buyer in an eCommerce environment. There are several third party applications that process, verify and carry out transactions in a secure manner. Some of the most reputed ones used in Singapore include 2Checkout, Asia Pay, Braintree, Coinbase, CyberSource, eWay, PayPal Express Checkout, NETbilling, among others.

The hidden potential for Marketing

A secure payment gateway doesn’t just facilitate transactions but also shows promise in uplifting marketing endeavors. How, you ask? Here are a few ideas on making the most of it:

1) Show them that you care

Do not shy away from flaunting something you've got, especially when that something will resolve a major concern of your customers. Let them know that you care, understand their predicament and assure them of security. Tell them how you've specifically invested in payment security options to instill a sense of confidence in them about your brand.

2) Use customer perceptions to your advantage

While even large enterprises have been susceptible to security breaches in the past, the average customer’s perception still revolves around the fact that small businesses aren't equipped to provide secure payments. If your business provides payment security, you can leverage this fact as a point of differentiation to your competition and communicate it to your customers.

3) Give them a reason to choose you

Use your marketing campaign to remind customers the detrimental effects of doing business with a company that doesn't take security seriously. Highlight the long-term benefits they stand to gain and how they can avoid credit card frauds, and other scams.

4) Share customer reviews

Once someone falls victim to a fraud, it's unlikely that they'll do business with the same vendor again. Show them how several other customers trust your brand and enlighten them of your emphasis on security at every possible opportunity.

Incorporate a secure payment gateway into your site now. Don't know how? Openwave, a leading IT company expertise in Web Portal / Billing System in Singapore, will help ramp up payment security on your web portal.

Website aesthetics vs. Usefulness: What matters the most?

Design goes a long way in sending the right message across to your website visitors, but overdoing it might end up spelling disaster. Often, in the quest to create the most visually stunning masterpiece, the essence of the website is forgotten. In this article, we’ll explore how a few Web Design elements can create a negative impact instead of the desired effect. Remember, usefulness is more important than aesthetics, and we’re here to tell you why:

1) Elements should serve a function

Any form/shape/element should serve a function. However, these days, designers design the form and hope that the function will be served on its own. That’s not the case. While designing, identify the core functionality of the site and build your design around it instead of the other way around.

2) If it’s too beautiful, it’s also distractive

Beauty is distractive - and while it’s not wrong to make your website beautiful, if it’s too much it would end up distracting your customers from the real purpose of your site. Blend beauty and functionality and ensure that your site works as great as it looks.

3) Poor usefulness may result in high bounce rates

At the end of the day, you want to make users stay, read, or buy something from you - which might not happen if they’re unable to use your website properly in the first place. High bounce rates due to lack of a useful design might affect your SEO and lower your rankings

4) Fast is better

Incorporating too many visual elements might look great, but will slow down your site. With users’ patience waning thin, no one would hang around for more than 3 seconds on your site. Keep the flashiness to a minimum and focus more on optimizing the site’s performance.

5) Simple is elegant

Going overboard with the design and adding too much might end up confusing your visitors at the end of the day. Users like it simple and simplicity, in turn, makes your website more functional.

Getting these elements right and striking a balance between both might seem like a daunting task – but not to us! Hire skilled web developers and designers from Openwave Singapore today.

Leading Web Responsive Platforms & How to Choose Among Them

Responsive Web building platforms offer people with no coding experience a chance to raise a glamorous, user-friendly site. However, there is an ever-increasing variety of such platforms, and it is vital that you go for the one that fits your needs. Here are some factors you need to examine the below functionality to make a website responsive.

 

Features to compare

User-friendliness

Make sure that the builder’s design offers convenience to users, and is easy to navigate through. Simplify the map of the website, and add a few enticing design features for a thorough look.

SEO functionality

SEO is the bridge for your website to reach a good status on the search engine. Different website builders provide varying features, some of them helpful in the SEO area and others not so much. Ensure that you can find a web engine that integrates some sound search engine qualities into your site for optimal exposure.

Price

Evaluating the price is crucial in this process. Web engines offer a variety of tools, themes, and features, all of them for different price ranges as well. Examine your needs, and set a budget for yourself, before approaching the web builder that matches both.

Customer support

Building a medium of interactivity with customers is one of the growing needs of websites. Ensure that the platform that you choose allows you to easily integrate a messaging or chat box to engage with your audience.

Web development platforms

Below are examples of the leading web building engines to look among:

Wix

Wix is one of the most known names in the field of website builders. An expansive app store, as well as greatly responsive templates, make it one of the preferred destinations in the field.

BigCommerce

This is a reputed name with respect to eCommerce websites. It allows businesses to create sound, reliable interfaces as well as incorporate some great themes into the site.

Web.com

Web.com offers strong support for its clients and can integrate some quality features into your website.

Weebly

This is a platform that provides a massive variety of themes and templates to choose from. The builder also uses an easily usable drag-and-drop format that allows you to insert features into the website with zero hassle.

If you’re in need of professional help in responsive website development/design - Openwave Singapore can offer you the solution. We have been entrenched in this field for nearly twenty years now, and can build you a sharp, feature rich website to attract customers and grow your business.

Should you Hire PHP Developers for Web Development Project?

Are you planning a large-scale PHP project for your organization soon? You have one of two options: create an in-house team for development and maintenance or outsource the work to an external team. Both approaches have their drawbacks and advantages.

Should you outsource PHP development?

In most cases, outsourcing is the better choice – it is both a time and a money saver. Here are some ways why recruiting external developers can be beneficial for your business:

Save costs

Many entrepreneurs believe they’ll be able to build a cheap product in-house. Nothing can be farther from the truth, however. A modest-size project can cost up to four times more if you create in-house. If you create a team in your organization, you have to commit to them long-term, which can greatly ramp up costs.

Build on time

Developing complex applications is tricky and can be a time-consuming process. It’s not uncommon for a project to take twice as long as previously thought if you built it by yourself. On the other hand, external developers already have a team in place where every member knows their responsibility, which allows for fast development.

Experience counts

If you haven’t built internally before, you are going to hit a log of snags along the way. Experienced external developers have already worked with dozens of businesses - they understand the challenges of development and will be able to deliver a high-quality product without too much hassle.

New features

Technology is constantly evolving. It’s hard for an internal team that doesn’t specialize in PHP development to keep up with all the changes. Hiring professionals who are well-versed with the platform will enable you to create a product that has all the latest features.

If you go for in-house development, you end up having to pay hefty infrastructure costs, not to mention the fact that you’d have to spend a very long time finding the right talent. On the other hand, when you hire external developers, you’re just renting a pre-existing setup – which saves you a great many resources. You can build robust, scalable, platform-independent web apps (and web portals and web sites) at a fraction of the cost by going for outsourcing.

Why Do you Need a Business Website? Find out

Almost half the human population uses the internet in some form or the other. Many consumers prefer to research products and services - and even the company offering them - online before making a purchase decision. Despite this, many small and medium-sized business owners (SMBs) still don’t own a Website. So if you don’t have a website, do you truly need one?

Here are some of the significant benefits of building one:

Find more customers

Like mentioned before, a significant majority of customers search for products and services online. By having a web page up and running, you will be able to find more customers not only in your vicinity but also worldwide.

Improve reputation

According to research, customers think better of businesses that have a web-based (and mobile) presence. They are more likely to do buy from them and also recommend them to their family and friends. An online presence gives you a reputation boost.

Marketing made easy

It takes a lot of time and money to market in the real world, especially if you want to print ads in papers, magazines, or create brochures. On the other hand, marketing online is way cheaper, and you can drive traffic to your website quickly with social media, email marketing, and blog posts.

Do business 24/7

Unlike your real world office, your web pages don’t need to shut shop at night. If you sell products, you can create an eCommerce site that will be able to sell 24/7 without a break. If you run a consultation or services company, customers will be able to engage with you at night.

Customer care

It's possible to provide a range of remote services to clients with a web presence, including making instant payments, handling complaints, responding to inquiries, and acting on customer feedback. Keep up with the competition Finally, almost every business - big and small - owns a website these days. If you don’t own one, you risk falling far behind the competition. By owning one, though, you can even realistically compete against big corporations.

Thanks to CMS software and cheap hosting, setting up and maintaining a website is a breeze these days. If you need a professional website made at an affordable price, you can hire a web development team in Singapore for the task.

Web Design Trends that are Changing the Internet Landscape in 2017

Last year, we saw a lot more businesses adopting the mobile-first approach and, consequently, implementing responsive design on their websites to make them mobile friendly. 2017 is shaping up to be another great year for Website Design, as we see many innovative trends are being adopted around the world. 

Here are some of the top web design trends that are transforming the Internet landscape in 2017: 

Layouts that bring the focus to the content

Content is still king, and more designers are waking up to the fact that people navigate to websites to read content and not just to view neat animation tricks. In 2017, we expect many sites to be redesigned to make the content more readable and clear, with elements promoting ease of readability. 

SVGs to improve loading times

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVGs) are relatively new technology. They are an alternative to traditional image formats like PNG, GIF, and JPG. They allow designers to produce images that can be scaled up and down to match any screen size without loss of fidelity (unlike other formats). What’s more, they don’t require HTTP requests, so pages with them load lightning-quick.

3D design elements

3D design isn’t new, but we saw the mainstream implementation of 3D elements on top websites via technology like Parallax scrolling. This year, we are going to see designers make websites that can be viewed on 3D wearable devices like Oculus Rift.

Colors helping the minimalist approach

There has been a trend in the market to build websites that have a minimalist interface and a clutter-free design. Bold and bright colors are being used to both emphasize the content as well as to promote a brand’s identity.

Constraint-based design tools

Developers usually have to create several versions of a site for different screen sizes. In 2017, the market is being flooded with tools like Figma that allow site makers to build a site only once and have it displayed correctly across multiple platforms.

Are you looking for to make a new website in 2017? Openwave’s leading Web Design & Development team can make you a custom website with leading-edge features at economical prices.

Top SEO-Friendly eCommerce Platforms that can maximize Sales

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial for your online business. Statistics tell us that almost 50% of all online purchases originate from a search query. By getting your online store to rank higher in search engine rankings, you will get more incoming traffic and ultimately make more sales every month.

What does Search-Engine Friendly design entail?

There are a lot of factors that affect SEO. Some of the top ones include:

• Independent navigational links
• Page titles
• Page URLS
• Meta descriptions
• ALT Tags
• H1 headings
• Canonical URLs
• Blogs
• Social sharing
• XML Sitemaps
• Domain names
• IP Address
• 301 redirects
• Robot Noindex

To maximize sales, you have to build your eCommerce store on an SEO-friendly platform. To help you out, here is a list of top platforms that align with the factors above and provide above average search engine optimization:

Magento

Over 500,000 businesses use Magento, and it has near perfect SEO scores. Magento is the platform of choice for big and small businesses alike.

Shopify

Shopify is a hosted solution, meaning you have to pay the developers a monthly fee to host your store. You can build beautiful stores on it, though, that always rank high in search listings.

PrestaShop

PrestaShop is used by over 250,000 businesses worldwide. The platform is perfect if you want to build a low-cost store with advanced features.

OsCommerce

With OsCommerce, you can build advanced stores with many features, but you need advanced programming knowledge to make it search engine friendly.

BigCommerce

The selling point of this platform is the ability to build megastores with no product limits at affordable prices. It also helps that the platform’s layout is easy for Google to index.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce stores rank very highly on Google. It allows you to turn a WordPress website into a high-performing online store.

OpenCart

OpenCart is a very cost-effective eCommerce platform. It is very cheap to set up and run a store on it, and they don’t impose limits on your products like some other platforms do.

You will need a fast-loading, attractive, easy-to-navigate store to convert a visitor from a search engine to a customer. You can hire an experienced eCommerce development team in Singapore to build a custom store with advanced features.

It’s Crucial for Your Business to Own an Official Website: Know why

So you don’t own a website yet, in 2016? We're in the midst of a digital revolution, with billions of people accessing the internet daily and using it as their primary information resource. People use the internet for shopping, to find local business services, and to compare products being offered by competing companies. By not having a website, it's almost as if your business doesn't exist!

Here are some undeniable reasons why you need an official website right now:

Make yourself more accessible to clients

You will be able to provide useful, relevant information in a single location. That will make it easy for customers to tell what you have to offer and make it more likely they'll work with you.

Find more customers than ever before

The internet has no boundaries. Organisations these days have a chance of doing business with clients from around the world. A website makes it easy to find customers globally that are interested in what you have to offer. 

Keep your business up-and-running 24/7

Unlike your real-world office, a website doesn’t need downtime. It can stay up-and-running 24/7. Consequently, you can sell your products or services all day, every day.

Credibility

Every entrepreneur knows that a business' reputation is as important as - if not more important than - the product they are selling. Having an official site tells your customers you are serious and you are running a successful business. 

Reduce marketing costs

It doesn’t cost a lot of money to market online. You can advertise for free by creating a blog or by offering newsletters to customers or clients. 

Save on upkeep

Customers will no longer have to visit you in the real world for some of your products or services (if you’re offering them online). Consequently, you will get less foot-traffic and can save on some operating expenses.  

There are over a billion websites on the internet at the moment. Your official site, if you decide to get one, will have to compete with them. To create a professional-looking website that can convert efficiently and stand the test of time, hire an experienced web development team. 

Five Festive Season Strategies to Help you Make Huge Holiday Profits

Statistics tell us that over 40% of all eCommerce sales are made during the holiday season. If you want to grow your revenues during the upcoming festivities, you have to plan out a marketing strategy in advance and ensure your website is ready to hook incoming traffic.

What makes Magento the Best eCommerce Platform?

Magento is the world’s leading eCommerce platform, with a market share of over 29 percent. To give you an idea of how popular it is, it run by over 250,000 web stores - including top global brands like Samsung, Ford, Lenovo and Fox Connect. It has been around for a long time and has managed to fend off competition from other platforms like Shopify with ease. 

4 ways a Responsive Web Design can benefit SEO

Imagine finding a brand or product in a website on your smartphone that’s clearly meant for the desktop; imagine all the misplaced texts and images just thrown here and there, making you flinch to the core. What would be your next move? You close the page as quickly as possible. Yes! That's what everyone else will do. With the advent of user-friendly designs, people are seeking an enhanced mobile experience. However, is responsive web design only for the comfort of users? No! From the business perspective, it is also excellent for SEO. 

What makes a PHP Website the perfect catalyst for Business Growth?

The Website Development has taken a great leap in recent years, with newer and more sophisticated technology making dynamic web application a reality. While there are quite a few Web Development platforms used, there is one clear winner among them all - and that is PHP. Since its inception over two decades ago, it has grown tremendously and has etched an ever-lasting legacy in the site development realm. Touted as the developer’s most-beloved development tool, a website can act as the perfect catalyst to your business’ growth.