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5 Principles to Consider (and Implement!) When Designing Your eCommerce Logo

Think of any iconic business. It doesn’t matter the industry — it could be cars, food, technology or some other sector. When you take a moment to recall them, what image pops up in your brain?

That’s right: the logo. Sure, you may start to contemplate the company’s offerings or an experience you had with a product, but the first picture you see will likely be the logo.

An effective logo is an essential and crucial part of your eCommerce business. It’s the entry point to any further interaction a potential customer may have with your brand. It will either invite interest and remembrance or disinterest and obscurity for your brand. Having a memorable logo can make a significant difference in your sales volume over time, too.

Logos are based on five foundational principles: simplicity, memorability, original, modern yet timeless and versatile. All great logos stand out from the crowd because they have these five components working together in harmony.

Let’s delve further into each of these 5 principles of amazing logos.

1. Simplicity: It’s Not Rocket Science

Simplicity is the first foundational aspect on the list — for a good reason. A simple logo speaks to an audience easily and immediately. It doesn’t confuse, it doesn’t flaunt and it doesn’t inundate. It’s digestible and, therefore, effective.

Let’s take a logo from one of the most successful toy companies in history: Lego. Although it’s passed through various iterations throughout the business’s timeline, today’s version is a simple red square with the word “LEGO” in white in the middle. The font is slightly bulbous, and the letters are outlined in black and then yellow. That’s it. No explanation, no pictures, no description.

However, this simple design conveys a whole lot within its relatively limited details. The playful font connotes a fun feeling, and the vibrant red brings alertness and energy to the logo. The easy to pronounce and catchy name snuggly fits in the square. All these pieces add up to a simple logo that says a lot. Of course, we wouldn’t know precisely what the Lego logo was for if we weren’t familiar with the immensely popular toy, but we’d still be able to take in the logo and experience a feeling.

Your eCommerce logo should also harness these same powers of simplicity. Think of a logo that is first easy for most people to experience. It shouldn’t be a chore to look at — within a few seconds, all of the necessary information should be consumed. Then, that simplicity should subtly convey aspects of the business. Through design choices such as font and color scheme, the logo emits a personality that makes the consumer feel a certain way.

The funny thing about simplicity is that it’s generally more difficult to achieve than complexity. It would be easier to spell out aspects of your eCommerce in the logo and share all the information you want them to know. However, it’s far more effective to have a simple logo that effortlessly provides potential customers with an experience.

2. Memorability: Stick With It

Nike. Once you read that name, there’s no question; a swoosh shortly comes to your mind’s eye. A masterclass in logo simplicity — but also an excellent example of a logo that’s memorable.

All of these principles go hand in hand and reinforce each other. A simple logo has a better chance of being a memorable logo.

Think about a catchy pop song, those one-hit wonders that still sometimes become earworms on a random Tuesday. They have the simplest of choruses that you can sing over and over effortlessly. They’re simple, and that helps to make them memorable.

But what else makes a logo memorable?

Something about the logo must be compelling. Is it the bold color choice? Does it contain an undeniably unique drawing? Is the font irresistibly elegant? Is the word in the logo itself catchy? What ultimately makes this logo different and outstanding?

To be memorable, your eCommerce logo must say something starkly different or convey a feeling so clearly that it stays with the viewer. Think of how to stand out from the crowd and be remembered.

3. Originality: There’s Only One

The last thing you want your logo to do is get confused with or remind others of another logo. If a logo doesn’t have its own unique identity, it not only gets forgotten, but it lacks purpose with the brand.

One of the logo’s essential functions is to announce the business itself. The features of the logo present the personality and vibe of the company. The various details convey a business’s energy and perhaps even its purpose.

If the logo is not completely unique, it cannot convey the company’s message, as it gets muddled in confusion.

Therefore, logo originality helps the company stand out, be memorable and sows the seeds of brand awareness and understanding.

I can’t overstate this, many eCommerce owners now use automated logo maker like this one, but you will never get a unique logo with these platforms, many of the logos are the same! It’s much better to invest a few hundred dollars and hire a designer who can work with to create an original logo that speaks for your brand.

4. Modern Yet Timeless: Never Going Out of Style

The great logos stand the test of time. They may become tweaked or adjusted over the years, but their core persists through decades.

These logos do not dictate a particular time period’s style and social acceptance, nor do they fall into the category of vintage and cool. Rather, they transcend an era’s style to stand on its own and stay relevant.

Take, for instance, Toyota’s logo. This design of three overlapping ovals has been on cars since 1990, but nothing about this logo feels dated today. In fact, the logo even adds a modern touch to the most cutting-edge Toyota cars released today.

This logo, and others like it, have the quality of being outside the ebbs and flows of society’s fads and fashions. They have a uniqueness and personality all their own that isn’t informed by their surroundings.

When you design your own eCommerce logo, lean into your originality and create it apart from the forces that influence trends and popularity.

5. Versatility: More Than a One-Trick Pony

Your logo won’t just pop up on your website. It may show up on documents and on boxes. It may need to shrink or expand or change color for a particular product.

All that to say, your logo should have a level of adaptability and versatility. This does not mean that its roots or identity are compromised; on the contrary, its identity is so well-established that it can be utilized in other fashions and still be distinct and known.

A great example of this is the Apple logo. A simple apple with a smooth bite taken out of it and a unique stem design, this logo is easily digestible and memorable. Throughout the years, it has essentially stayed the same. However, it has undergone a lot of changes. It was rainbow-colored in the 80s and 90s, and in the early 2000s, it had a shiny appearance. However, this is ultimately the same logo, and you recognize it lit up white on the back of a laptop or rainbow on an old advertisement.

Your logo should be able to be tweaked and adapted without getting lost. Appearing on a white business card should be as simple as being printed on an orange poster.

The Pillars for Your Logo’s Success

A logo is the door to your business. If a potential customer is enticed by a simple and original design, they are often able to see that design on an array of products and remember and connect with that logo for years to come. Customers who remember your brand fondly are more apt to walk through your door when they’re looking for products or services that your brand offers.

Anchor your design to the five foundational principles for an effective logo, and you will be setting your eCommerce business up for success.

Benefits of Headless Commerce Approach

At present, one of the latest e-commerce trends that has a huge impact on business performance is the headless approach. According to Yottaa, more than 60% of retailers are ready to leverage this business model to their commerce. And it’s no surprise since this strategy implies much better flexibility of your site and faster accommodation of the numerous service and system improvements by simply separating the front-end and back-end parts of the e-commerce platform. 

With this tactics implementation, brands can, for instance, effectively accommodate the updates for a user experience enhancement without the need to engage more labor or resources to make any changes to the back-end system, and vice versa. But is this system really a must-have for your business model?

Today, we’ll uncover the most essential benefits you’ll get from the headless commerce approach.

Main Benefits of Headless Commerce Strategy

The 3rd annual eCommerce Leaders Survey Report on Site Performance has indicated that around 62% of eCommerce executives from the industry’s biggest brands are concerned that headless commerce can significantly improve customer engagement and enhance business conversions. In fact, there are much more benefits this business model can bring to your commerce and its consumers. 

Innovative Technologies for Launching More Visionary, Faster Sites

With the headless strategy, developers can freely implement and test the new technologies, more comfortable for users. The thing is they don’t need to adjust their improvements to the requirements of the traditional CMS, unlike it is with the traditional eCommerce model. 

As a result of better flexibility, it becomes much easier and much faster to house and deliver the content using the CMS, DXP, or Internet of Things devices. For the customers, such a change means a better user experience, which will lead to their better conversion than on the traditional eCommerce platforms. 

Higher Conversion Rates and Lower Client Acquisition Spendings

At present, it becomes more and more challenging to capture the clients’ interest, which for any eCommerce means higher acquisition costs due to the strong competition in paid ads. 

However, the headless commerce strategy is an efficient yet profitable way of redirecting these spendings! The main focus of this method implies a strong focus on increasing the lifetime customers via the Organic traffic channel instead of relying on the unstable effect of the advertising campaigns. 

Instead of paid ads campaigns, headless is mainly targeted to increase user engagement and boost the business conversion using content- or experience-led strategies. Thus, it can not only reduce the costs needed to maintain the competitiveness of your eCommerce platform but also enhance the online presence of your business and establish a strong traffic channel regardless of whether or not you run an ad campaign. 

Better Employee Engagement 

Another great feature of a headless commerce model is that it enables efficient employee adoption of the new technologies, even if they lack a specific technical background. That is why the team members are free to access and operate the front end without advanced skills in programming. Additionally, this reduces the time, costs, and resources required to get new workers up to speed, so they can easily start their work. 

Consistency Across the Front End and Back End Channels

As a rule, any changes to the eCommerce website are run by the developer’s team. The businesses with the headless commerce model can instead adopt any site improvements independently with no assistance from the IT team. This results in a shorter time frame needed for the new technologies implementation and testing, and also a way more efficient working performance of each channel targeted on the platform enhancement: they’ll contribute to different aspects of the common eCommerce upgrade strategy. 

The Agile Marketing Establishment

The headless model can ensure faster and more efficient employment of the innovative technologies as and when they arise, which is both important for the business and its customers as well. The marketers receive more control under the multiple campaigns and are able to set up the new projects in just a few days. Thus, instead of months of waiting for the campaign launch and its results, the team will be able to analyze its performance much faster!

Wrapping Up

At present, it becomes really challenging for eCommerce businesses to keep up with the new trends in this industry and still be able to maintain competitiveness within any scope. With the headless commerce strategy, your team will be able to independently work on different aspects of the commerce improvement, and deliver better results in shorter time frames. Targeted on giving more freedom to both the front-end and back-end channels, it enables running different projects and adopting the latest technologies to your business. 

Needless to say, the more and the better engagement your business will provide, the bigger are the chances for your brand to obtain lifetime customers!


E-Commerce Mistakes You Should Avoid as a New eCommerce Webmaster

Running an eCommerce business is like a rock-climbing expedition. Sometimes you are on up-and-up, obstacle-free progress. Other times, you hit obstacles that threaten the progress and success of your eCommerce store. Like a rock-climbing, you must arm yourself with the right tools, expertise, and determination that will propel your venture to heights of success.

For this reason, you must ensure that you are fully prepared before you start your eCommerce journey. In addition, being well-prepared will help you to know some of the eCommerce mistakes to avoid. New eCommerce webmasters rush things. They end up working with unreliable eCommerce platforms, ignoring user experience factors, and failing to secure their eCommerce websites properly. In so doing, they end up making losses, exposing sensitive data to customers. Such can easily take them out of business and with a bunch of legal penalties on their backs.
Most Common Ecommerce Mistakes That Should Be Avoided

 

This article will take you through some common eCommerce mistakes to avoid and tell you how to set your business in motion. If you have great ambitions of being an eCommerce webmaster or recently launched your eCommerce venture, ensure that you avoid the following mistakes. 

1: Ignoring eCommerce security Best Practice

One of the biggest problems facing eCommerce stores is cybersecurity threats. The internet is no longer safe, and therefore you should trust no one, including some of your employees and friends. In fact, according to Verizon's 2020 DBIR report, 30% of data breaches now involve internal actors. So, although it might seem weird to think your employees could compromise your data, it does happen, and you must be extra vigilant. 

Most new web admins do not know the security measures that they can take to protect their data from the increasing cybersecurity threats. They thus leave their data exposed to malicious individuals who might want to use the data for the wrong reasons.

But the greatest security mistake you can ever make is to use HTTP instead of HTTPS transfer protocols. HTTP transfers data, including sensitive data in plain text. As such, intruders have an easy time accessing and reading through the data. On the other hand, the HTTPS transfer protocols have SSL certificates, which are small cryptographic tools that ensure the safe transfer of data through encryption. 

With an SSL certificate, data is transmitted in indecipherable format. The intended recipients who have the correct decryption keys are the only ones who will decrypt the data. Because your eCommerce store might contain sensitive data, you must ensure to install the SSL certificate on your website. The certificate will protect sensitive details such as credit card information and many other users' details. Choosing the right kind of SSL certificate for your ecommerce platform is equally important. For example, you will probably own multiple subdomains like product pages, blog, payment pages, etc., under one main domain if you own a web shop. 

In this case, it is recommended to go with a wildcard SSL certificate to secure an unlimited number of level one subdomains under the chosen main domain. A cheap wildcard SSL is as effective as the more expensive ones as the level of encryption provided is the same.

 

2: Working with the Wrong eCommerce Platform

Choosing the right eCommerce platform will propel your business to success. On the other hand, a wrong eCommerce platform could compromise every success element for your business. As it has always been mentioned, the eCommerce platform you choose to work with could make or break your business. 

eCommerce platforms play a critical role in determining how you showcase your products and sell them to your audience. Additionally, it is pivotal in how you attract new customers. As such, the right eCommerce platform will scale your business over time. 

The last thing you want is to go for an eCommerce platform that compromises the success of your business. For instance, a wrong eCommerce platform might mean low conversion rates, low traffic, poor web designs, security issues. All these factors could lead to reduced revenues. 

Therefore, before finally choosing to work with a specific eCommerce platform, it would be best to do your homework to ensure you go for one that integrates properly with your existing systems or offers control levels and customization that you want your business to have. 

 

3: Failing to have an SEO Strategy

Before you launch your website, you must first ensure that you have the proper Search engine optimization strategies to take your website to the top in the search engine results pages. There is no point in having an eCommerce website that will not be visible in search engines. For this reason, you must set aside a budget to cater to SEO needs. 

Most new eCommerce store owners ignore the essence of SEO. As a result, in the long run, they end up not being visible and sometimes failing. SEO is, therefore, a vital element of your website which you must plan for adequately. Several SEO strategies will work best for you. For instance, you can optimize your website with the right keywords, install an SSL certificate on the website, optimize your website speeds, and improve the structure of your content. 

 

4: Poor UX and Complex Navigation

There are several eCommerce websites mistakes to avoid, and poor website design is one of them. As I mentioned earlier, you should never rush into creating your eCommerce websites because you might end up making mistakes. Good things take time, and this is no different in eCommerce. 

When creating an eCommerce website, you must ensure that it collaborates design with proper functionality. In addition, you must know that a bad website design will give a wrong first impression to your users. 

You are making a mistake if your websites' navigation uses confusing terms, has hard-to-read content, and most of your website features are not working correctly. Most users will get frustrated with such a website and will choose to leave the website before doing anything. In short, a poorly designed website means high bounce rates.  

 

5: Ignoring Mobile optimization

Statista shows that mobile devices are generating over 52% of the total web traffic. If this stat is something to go by, you realize that you have made a big blunder if you are yet to optimize your website for mobile friendliness. Mobile phone usages have been increasing rapidly, thanks to the fast internet connectivity and advancements in mobile technologies. The increasing usage of mobile devices explains the increase in the use of mobile phones for online shopping. 
Desktop and Mobile Internet Usage Statistics (2021) - High Speed Internet

 

You should never make the mistake of missing out on such opportunities to reach new customers. Being a newbie in the world of eCommerce stores, you must strive to reach out to new customers, and therefore you must ensure to optimize your website for mobile. 

 

6: Ineffective Calls-To-Action

CTAs are so effective in gaining new subscribers. They grasp the web visitors' attention and prompt them into taking actions such as filling out an online form or making a purchase. Your eCommerce website might have the best design, selling the best products, but it is useless to your visitors if they do not know what to do with the website. Therefore, you must subtly include CTAs in your content to guide your shoppers through their shopping journey.

 

7: Complicated Checkout Process

Your customers have now made it through the initial stages of your sales funnels and now want to pay and close the deal. Unfortunately, this is a critical stage that has seen a lot of cart abandonment. The primary reason for cart abandonment is a confusing or unclear checkout process. Therefore, your checkout process should be as simple as possible. Not one that leaves your customers fumbling over what to do next. Additionally, it would help if you did not hit them with additional charges, as this will discourage them and drive them away before they finally make the purchases.

 

8: No Contact Information

Your customers will want to reach out to you whenever they encounter problems or make inquiries about your products and their usages. To do so, they will want to contact you directly. For this reason, you must have clear and working contact information. For instance, you can have a contact information section that provides your email, phone number, and physical location. 

The contact information should stay active 24/7. Another reason for having contact details is that they help affirm your authenticity. Your customers will want to call or visit you to ensure that they are not working with a fake website on a mission to extort their money. As such, you should never make the mistake of leaving out the contact information details. 

 

9: Poor Customer Service

Customer service is a broad topic that includes several elements. For instance, it addresses how you respond to your customers' questions on your website and social media, handles their complaints, and how prompt you are in giving out support. Slow responses, not offering refunds, and showing impatience is a sure way to lose your eCommerce customers. You must avoid making such mistakes. 

 

Conclusion

Customers have become more vigilant and cautious about how they shop on the internet. They expect a convenient shopping experience. New eCommerce store owners tend to make mistakes that cost their success. With some bit of awareness, you can easily get past such errors and propel your business to success.  

What is SSL and Why Is It Critical in 2021?

By 2040, 95% of customers will buy stuff online. As staggering as this number looks, the Internet needs to be more secure for this prediction to come true. 

Without appropriate ecommerce website security, it is impossible to facilitate online buying at such a large scale, courtesy of data breaches.  

Data breaches regularly happen even with mega websites that claim to have the best security. 

In 2020’s first half itself, 540 data breach cases got reported. It goes to say that websites are missing out on an essential security protocol, aka an SSL certificate.

What is an SSL Certificate?

Introduced in 1995, an SSL certificate is a security protocol that protects website data from getting stolen or manipulated. 

An SSL certificate encrypts sensitive information through public and private keys over the unsecured network such as the Internet and decrypts it for the receiver. 

In this transit, no other person can access or witness the data transfer as it gets transferred over an isolated network. 

SSL eliminates the possibility of hacking and data theft creating a safe environment between the client and the webserver (the sending and receiving party). 

Even a cheap SSL certificate works as effectively as a costly one. The process of encryption and decryption remains the same regardless of the price.

What does an SSL certificate consist of?

An SSL certificate consists of a cryptographic key that stores the details of the certificate holder. 

But if you don’t have an SSL certificate, all the details justifying your authenticity will be absent. 

Wondering what those details are? 

Well, here are the details that your SSL certificate consist of:

  • Your name or your company’s name. 
  • Your serial number and certificate’s expiry date. 
  • Copy of your certificate’s public key. 
  • Digital sign of your certificate issuer. 

How does an SSL Certificate work?

An SSL certificate can be categorized into a handshake protocol and a record protocol. 

A handshake protocol is used to facilitate the establishment of a connection between the server and the client. 

It also defines the type of cryptographic keys that both the server and the client are using for communication. 

However, the record protocol defines how a sender will exchange information, how he will prepare it for sending and, how it will get decrypted, etc. 

Once the data gets authenticated, both the client and server-side establish cipher settings and a key that they will share to encrypt the data exchange during the entire session. 

All this goes invisible both for the user and the hacker. SSL2BUY provides the best certificate that will establish an appropriate connection between the client and the server. 

What is the significance of an SSL certificate in 2021?

Although an SSL certificate is of extreme significance to an ecommerce website where people enter their usernames, passwords, sign up for forms, and add credit/debit card details, in 2021, Google wants every website to have it as a mark of authenticity. 

Search engines like Google want their users to enter a safe and secure environment, which is why they generally flag websites that do not have an SSL certificate installed. 

Whether it is a cheap SSL certificate or a costly one, it shows how committed you are to protecting user information as customers offer more interest in secure websites. 

Benefits of having an SSL certificate

  1. Information becomes invisible to hackers.

When you pass a piece of information, it transmits between multiple computer systems. 

If your data is not secure and is open for everybody to see, they can manipulate it according to their convenience and even steal it.

But, if you have an SSL certificate installed then, the information transfer will get encrypted, and no computer with an evil intention (or even a good intention) in transit can see what is being transferred except the receiver.  

Thus, it makes your information invisible to hackers through encryption. 

  1. Built a sense of trust among the customers

Every customer is looking for the most feasible website to buy from. They are smart enough to know the importance of their data. 

They won’t just deliberately handover their credit/debit card, username, and password details. You need to earn their trust, and an SSL certificate can surely help you in that. 

When customers see that their details are getting stored under the protection of a green padlock, they do not hesitate to share their details. 

It will help you in building an appropriate brand image and customer satisfaction at the same time.

  1. Improves your search rankings

Search engines like Google provide a small lift to websites that have an SSL certificate installed. 

Google views them as an authentic website that will add value to its user experience, so it ranks SSL secure websites over those who are unsecure. 

Only secure websites can rank on the top of Google’s SERP in 2021. The search engine is planning to flag websites that do not have an SSL certificate. 

So, if you want to be the top-ranked website in 2021, you have to install an SSL certificate. 

  1. It helps you stay away from legal repercussions. 

Not only does SSL protect your website from outside threats, but it also keeps you clear of legal problems that may arise due to compromise in consumer data security. 

SSL helps you in complying with DSS PCI standards so that no credit card or bank fraud can take place from your website. 

In case a customer sues you in court for stealing his information or his money, you can show your DSS and PCI complied SSL certificate in your defense and save loads of money. 

Modern courts do consider SSL certificates as proof that you are operating an authentic website. 

To Conclude

An SSL certificate is like your shop’s protection system. It protects you from cyber thieves that are on a constant lookout for pray. 

Having a strong SSL certificate from an authentic provider like SSL2BUY is the need of every website that facilitates the exchange of goods/services for money. 

So, get an SSL certificate installed today and keep your website and customer data in safe hands.