Monthly Archives: April 2015

Advantages of Paypal

PayPal is an e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. PayPal serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper methods such as checks and money orders.

1. Easily accept online payments
2. Immediate and convenient.
3. Payment is deposited directly into the seller’s account.
4. No need for customer to have a PayPal account
5. Send money to anyone with an email address.
6. No separate hosting, shopping cart, payment gateway or merchant account required.
7. Inexpensive set-up and processing fees
8. You can pay directly from the item listing page.
9. No requirement that you use your credit card (you can transfer money directly from your bank account).
10. Sellers don’t see your credit card number (it is safely encrypted through PayPal’s server), which limits the risk of unauthorized use.
11. Automatic payment tracking.
12. Easy set-up on the shopping cart websites
13. PayPal Buyer Protection offered on qualifying items – up to $1,000 in free coverage.
14. Include your own logo or background in Paypal
15. Additional limited protection offered through PayPal’s Money Back Guarantee.

Payment Gateway Integration Services Provider in India

Payment gateway is an ecommerce service that authorizes payments made through credit cards / debit cards online for e-businesses & online retailers. Payment Gateway Integration or Online Payment Processing is a way of receiving payments from your customers on your website. If you are an existing ecommerce store owner or planning to launch a ecommerce enabled store then you need a reliable payment gateway service provider to enable payment gateway integration on your store so that at the end of your checkout process a user can make payments to you online using his credit card or internet banking.  

Payment gateway service providers in India provide you a comprehensive ecommerce website package or only payment gateway integration service according to the choice of your payment gateway. With our extensive experience with payment gateway services and implementations we can easily help you out with various payment gateway services and payment gateway integrations for numerous payment gateway service providers in India or abroad. List of payment gateways already implemented.

• PaySeal, ICICI ePayments Ltd., India
• CCAvenue
• HDFC Bank India
• Secure-e-pay, Global Tele-Systems Ltd., India
• American Express
• Paysignet
• E-Billing Solutions (EBS)
• ABC Payments
• Cell Pay
• 2checkout.com
• Paypal
• CitiBank India, India

India has 65 Million Active Internet Users; Number of Online Shoppers up by 70% YoY: Juxt

According to India Online Landscape 2011 study by Juxt, the number of active internet users in India stand at 65 million, recording a 28 per cent rise from 51 million last year. The study also revealed that India has 61 million ‘regular’ users with 46 million urban and 16 million rural users.

“4 out of 5 internet users ‘shop’ online, translating into a 50 million strong online consumer base. 17 million of these ‘online shoppers’ (or 29 per cent of all internet users), also ‘buy’ online recording a growth of 70 per cent from 10 million last year. Online buyers of ‘non-travel’ products stand at 13.5 million outnumbering 8.6 million travel buyers,” the study quoted.

Most bought ‘non-travel’ products were mobile phones and accessories recording 56 per cent responses, computer hardware and consumer electronics contribute 35 per cent each and movie tickets stand at 30 per cent. Most bought ‘travel’ products were train tickets at 83 per cent and air tickets at 58 per cent.

“The growth is largely ‘PC’ driven as access on mobile phones is still only among 1 in 4 internet user. Mobile is adding ‘depth of usage’ and 8 out of 10 mobile internet users are ‘dual’ users. Only mobile based usage is low at 3 per cent with 1.8 million users,” the study said. Home is the single largest place of access recording 58 per cent, and the most preferred place of access recording 43 per cent responses. Only ‘Home’ and ‘transit’ show growth in usage on ‘preferred place’ basis.

The study further states that internet reaches 29 million Indian households (avg. users per household up marginally at 2.23) and covers 11.3 per cent of all Indian households and 5.4 per cent of all Indians with 13 per cent urban and 2 per cent rural. Over 4 in 5 are ‘daily’ users. Daily users’ base grew at 33 per cent.

Almost 2/3rd of all internet users are employed and 71 per cent of the employed ones ‘head’ of their households. 2/3rd of online Indians belong to SEC A,B and C, with claimed ‘average’ monthly family income of `18,720; 1 in 4 have a credit card. Female user-ship ‘inch’ up further at 27 per cent but ‘housewives’ segment declines.

Connection speeds of internet usage has picked up noticeably from all places of access, which indicated that a good proportion of existing users have been ‘upgrading’ their connection speeds.

Online search for products (especially non-travel products) has been up significantly, making ‘shopping’ the 2nd most popular online activity (at 85 per cent) after emailing. Social and professional networking also gained usership further reaching 61 per cent and 48 per cent usage. Usage of all ‘social media’ platforms put together inched up to 86 per cent.

Job search, cinema ticket booking and reading product reviews are other activities that gained users. Downloading screensavers/wallpapers, online trading in shares and watching videos showed the most declines in usage. Usership of ‘local language’ content gained only marginally recording 2 per cent growth to reach 29 per cent.

Google continues to dominate the online landscape with Google, Gmail, Gtalk and YouTube being the most used websites for 19 distinct online activities (compared to 24 activities last year). Facebook emerges as the leader in 6 distinct verticals including online games and even professional networking. For the rest of the verticals, it is the ‘specialized’ players who lead or dominate user preferences like Naukri, IRCTC, EBay, 99Acres, MoneyControl, ShareKhan, BharatMatrimony, Toorentz, Songs.pk, ESPNStar.

“25 to 35 years’ user segment grows further as the ‘single largest’ online age group. 9 out of 10 ‘home’ and ‘office’ based online Indians log on to the net ‘daily’ and almost half of all ‘home based’ net users are ‘heavy users’ of internet (spending >2 hours a day on weekdays). Less than 1 in 3 of them spend that kind time on other media. Net surfing is among top 3 favorite ‘indoor entertainment’ for 3 out of 4 of them and 9 out of 10 of them (86 per cent) use some ‘social media’ (networking, communities, blogs, tweets, reviews).

The India Online Landscape 2011 studies the online Indians and their net usage behavior and preferences. This year’s annual land survey was conducted between April 2011 to Mid June 2011 to profile and estimate ‘internet users’ in India.  The survey covered ‘towns’ and ‘villages’ of all population strata in all the mainland states and union territories in India (covering all the key, and 80 of the total 88 regions in India as per latest classification by NSSO). Net usage dynamics, usage behavior and website preferences were captured from the ‘actual’ internet users in an online survey using Juxt’s own 180,000+ member Internet User Panel.

India ranks as second largest market for Google+ visitors

comScore has released its first look at visitation to Google+ finding that in its first three weeks the site has reached 20 million worldwide visitors where India ranked as the second largest market for Google+ with 2.8 million visitors.

Google’s new social product Google+ launched to great fanfare a few weeks ago, and since then many have been speculating about how quickly the site has grown and whether or not it’s the fastest growing site in history. It’s fair to say the initial market response has been very positive overall, with accolades going to its design, usability and approach to group networking with Circles.

To get a better understanding of how Google+ is performing to date and who is using it, comScore pulled together some figures based on the first 21 days of its public existence (June 29, 2011 – July 19, 2011). Importantly, these data are based on unique visitors (which is different than “users” in that people who never sign up may visit Google+ pages) from home and work computers (which excludes usage via mobile devices). In addition, comScore is measuring behavior from people who visit plus.google.com pages, which may not include usage that occurs through the Google+ bar at the top of most Google pages.

As of July 19, comScore showed Google+ at just about 20 million visitors worldwide, an extraordinary number in just its first three weeks. That number represents an increase of 82% from the previous week and 561% vs. two weeks prior. The U.S. audience recently surpassed 5 million visitors, up 81% from the previous week and 723% from two weeks earlier.

It would be difficult to think of many sites that reached such a large number in such a short period of time. That said, Google does have a built-in visitor base of more than 1 billion to work with, so there is clearly potential to convert a high number of users to its new social tool – even if it is still invite-only.

What is also interesting about the rapid growth of Google+ is its proliferation on a global basis. While the U.S. leads in Google+ audience, it currently accounts for 27% of the total worldwide audience. Interestingly, India holds a strong #2 position with 2.8 million visitors. The UK (867,000 visitors), Canada (859,000 visitors) and Germany (706,000 visitors) round out the top five.

Time will ultimately tell if Google+ can leverage its early momentum to reach critical mass among users and capture a firm foothold in the well-established social networking market.

5 Years Statistics of Twitter

Search Engines Notice H1 Headings Importance

What are H1 headings?

An H1 heading is a prominent piece of text on a web page. It’s like the headline of a newspaper or magazine article – it helps readers quickly understand what the web page is about. For example, if this email were a web page, “Search Engines Notice H1 Headings” would be its H1 heading.

An H1 heading is plain text that lives between these HTML tags: <h1> and </h1>

How can H1 headings help my search engine rankings?

Because headings are defined with HTML code, search engines understand that these pieces of text are of particular importance. You should include important keywords for a page in its H1 heading to tell search engines what the page is about, and help it rank higher in results for searches on those words.

Do my website’s pages have H1 headings?

You can find out by looking at the HTML source code for every page on your site. When you’re viewing the page, look for this option in your web browser. For example, in Firefox, you would click “View” at the top of the page, and then “Page Source.” You’ll see a page of code, and you can search for <h1> tags.

Because H1 headings are important and it’s tedious to check them manually, we analyze these – and many other SEO elements – in our Site Report.  We’ll alert you to any pages that don’t have an H1 heading, and also any pages that have two or more (you should have one per page). We show you what your H1 headings say, and alert you if they’re too long, or include anything other than plain text (they shouldn’t). 

How can I add or change my H1 headings?

Your content management system should have a simple way to add an H1 heading to each page. Look for an option like “heading”.  If you don’t see it, consult the Help pages of the tool you use, or contact their support people.

If you can edit the HTML code for your website, you can add an H1 heading where you want it to show up, like this: <h1>What you want the heading to say</h1> You can also look for an existing H1 heading, and change the text between the tags.

Some website editors don’t allow you to add an H1 heading or edit the HTML code for web pages. If this is the case, you won’t be able to add an H1 heading. But you can emphasize a piece of text to make it look like a heading by making the font bigger or by making it bold. This will help your visitors, and it will be a signal to search engines that this piece of text is important, much like an H1 heading.

Mobile Payment Will Change Commerce: 2012 Consumer Trend

Rick Rusch who is a senior leader in business and marketing.predicting that 2012 will be the year of the mobile payment movement.

Mobile payment, if you’re unfamiliar with the concept, is when consumers use their phones, like a credit card, with the help of a special near-field communication (NFC) microchip. Consumers could conceivably leave their wallets at home and pay with the tap of a phone instead.  While mobile commerce (buying stuff from online websites was nearly a $5 billion business in 2010, according to ABI Research estimates…their forecast for 2015 is jaw dropping. Shoppers around the world are expected to spend about $119 billion on goods and services purchased via  mobile phones. That number represents about 8% of the total e-commerce market.

But back to mobile payment, which is yet to take off in the USA.

Not surprisingly Apple has their eye on a “bigger” use for NFC technology.

The maker of the best-selling smartphone in the world—the iPhone 4—and the fourth largest cell phone manufacturer in the world, Apple Inc. reportedly wants to use NFC technology in future iPhone models to allow Apple’s computers to be able to act as terminals for information stored on iPhones. Users would essentially sync their iPhones with their Macintosh computers and then be able to use other Macs as their own after quickly scanning their iPhone via NFC and temporarily transferring their user data to the Mac acting as a terminal. You would be able to login to your computer from anywhere as long as you have the proper iPhone and can find access to a Mac with the ability turned on.

Be prepared for your smartphone to be even more hardworking in the next few months. Once your phone becomes the gateway to purchases and the remote key to your computer you’ll never want to “leave home without it.”

Google Network

What is Google Network? 

The Google Network is a large group of websites and other products, such as email programs and blogs, who have partnered with Google to display AdWords ads. Advertisers have the option of running their ads on Google as well as the Google Network for no extra cost.

AdWords ads are placed based either on searches or website content, so the Google Network has two components: the Search Network and the Display Network.

Who’s part of the Google Network?

We are always expanding the number of sites and products in our network through our premium services, our online Google AdSense program, and Double Click Ad Exchange. Participating websites must adhere to Google AdSense standards.

Keyword-targeted ads

Besides appearing on search results on Google, AdWords advertisers are automatically eligible to have their campaigns with keywords appear on the Google Network.

The Google Search Network

Ads are targeted based on a user’s search terms. For example, if you search for “Italian coffee” on a search engine powered by Google, such as AOL.com, you’ll see related coffee ads next to the search results.

The Google Display Network

Text, image, video, or rich media ads are targeted based on themes in your keyword list, rather than specific keywords. You can target websites that have partnered with Google (display partners), YouTube, and specific Google properties.

• Placement-targeted ads on the Display Network: Placements are another way of targeting ad groups. By adding placements to ad groups, advertisers can choose the sites where they would like their ad to appear, or bid more for those sites when they’re a match for the ad group’s keywords. 
• Adding audiences to your Display Network campaign: Use remarketing to reach people who previously visited your website, and match the right people with the right message. You can show users these messages as they browse sites across the Google Display Network. Remarketing is a feature of interest-based advertising available on the Audiences tab.
• Display Network bids: You may also choose to enable the Display Network bids feature. This lets AdWords advertisers set one price when their ads run on Google and Search Network sites, and a different price when their ads run on the Google Display Network.

Setting where you want your ads to show

New campaigns that start with keywords are automatically opted in to distribution on the Google Network, so if you want your ads to appear on Search and Display Network sites and products, you don’t need to do a thing. We recommend targeting both the Search and Display Networks. You can adjust your campaign settings to show only on the Search Network or only on the Display Network. 

Ecommerce: The New Gold Rush

Ecommerce is suddenly the in-thing and everyone wants to be a part of it, one way or the other.  While the established players are talking about growing at more than 100% year on year for the next couple of years, very surprisingly people still in their planning stage are talking about reaching 10% of their total revenue through ecommerce in the first year of operations. In the ecommerce industry as a whole, Sales are increasing rapidly; new players are mushrooming daily and funding companies are pouring money as if there is no other industry with potential!

Let us have a look at some of the recent investments by Global Venture Funds in Indian ecommerce ventures

Online Apparel retailers – Myntra.com, Zovi.com, Exclusively.In, Yebhi.com (primarily shoes)

Deals and Group discounting – Snapdeal, Deals and you, Fashion & You.

Books to Electronics: Flipkart, Indiaplaza, Letsbuy, BuyThePrice

Baby and Maternity wear: Babyoye.com, Firstcry.com

Closed group exclusive discounting: Fashion & You. 99labels

Some Acquisitions: Chaupaati Bazaar by Future Group, SoSasta by Groupon, PicSquare by Infibeam

Newspapers, blogs and other media forms are talking endlessly about ecommerce being the next big thing. We have humungous numbers being spelt out daily, projecting the industry to grow @70% Y-o-Y to reach $ 10 Billion this financial year. The growth and revenue targets might really sound a tall order to the cynics, but let us compare the figures with some other regions of the world.

USA: $ 210 Billion (Amazon reached $32 Billion)

Western Europe: $120 Billion

Japan: No clear figure but clearly more than $ 100 Billion

China: $ 80 Billion (Taobao.com did $61 Billion and did $150 Million in a single promotional day)

Compared to these numbers, the $ 10 Billion suddenly looks very small. Especially considering that the size of internet users in India has crossed 100 Million, we are only talking about $100 per person in a year. This is less than the online payment it’d generate if it is assumed that half the internet users have broadband connection and they pay their monthly rental online. Or, everyone buys one electronic item a year. Or, only 10% buy their grocery online. Or, only 1% buy their grocery, apparel, tickets, electronics online. Now this number suddenly is dwarfed by the possibilities that the remaining 99% of the market presents.

So, it is very safe to assume that the next gold rush is in Indian Ecommerce market. The earlier you jump onto it, the better prospects you have of making a fortune!

Top 10 Social Networking Sites by Market Share of Visits [May 2011]

May 2011 social networking data from US is in from Experian Hitwise. I updated our social networking market share data with th latest information and it now spans from March 2008 to May 2011.

Facebooks growth is slowing down and this is true specially in its US core market. This is to be expected as Facebook stabilizes and becomes a mainstream site in US market. In May Facebook lost almost 1 percentage point of visits dropping from 64.35% to 63.46%. But do not fear for Facebook as it still commands more than half of all US population. 

YouTube gained 0.56 percentage points moving to 20.50 percent of visits from 19.94 in April.

In May we got a new number three and four. After agonizing decline MySpace finally dropped from third place to fifth with only 1.06 percent remaining from its once dominant market share. This “once” was mere two years ago In May 2009.

Drum roll please, the new number three is Twitter with 1.15 percent by market share of visits. To get to this position Twitter had to pass Yahoo! Answers which lost ground in May.

Now the top 3 social networking sites by market share of visits match our perception:

1. Facebook
2. YouTube
3. Twitter

Last month LinkedIn’s marketshare moved slightly upto 0.39 percent as its stock price dropped about 25% from the first day of public trading.

The chart below is in logarithmic scale so that the smaller sites wouldn’t just a single line around 1% of social network market share. Every month in the chart lists the top 10 sites of that time by the market share of visits. Please note that it is just a percentage and 30% in January 2009 is a lot less than 30% in September 2010. The gaps in the the lines mean that the site wasn’t in the top 10 at that time.