Faced with the constant growth of tourism, the principles of demarketing are increasingly used by destinations to limit the impact on the local population. The tourism sector is generating more and more visitors, and UNWTO estimates that by 2030, 4 million tourists will be added to the 1.4 billion people already travelling.
For many destinations, managing this boom is a significant challenge. Many of them find themselves, victims of their success, when their infrastructure was not designed to support such an increase. Demarketing offers some possible solutions in response to these challenges.
Far from being new, this concept, proposed in 1971 by Philip Kotler and Sidney Levy, is based on the idea that surpluses can be as problematic as shortages. The authors, economists, and marketers respectively, define demarketing as the aspect of marketing that aims to discourage customers (or a particular segment) on a temporary or permanent basis.
This type of strategy is already widely used in specific sectors, particularly in public health. Think of advertisements on cigarette packs or even those inviting the population to consume alcohol and game sensibly. Therefore, the idea is to limit the increase in demand rather than encourage it since growth would have negative repercussions on society.
In the current tourism context, more and more managers must reflect on this notion. Should we at all costs attract as many visitors as possible in the name of economic development?
The graph shows the total number of tourists in millions at different places for the year 2021-2022
Strategies You Can Apply to Manage the Growing Influx of Tourists
How do develop a demarketing approach? The strategies to be adopted are based on the same principles as traditional marketing: the 4Ps (promotion, place, product, price). With the help of a few examples, let’s see how these strategies fit together in the context of tourism marketing.
Promotion
When a tourist area can no longer manage the flow of visitors it attracts, and the attractions and infrastructure are oversaturated, one possible solution is to stop all forms of promotion.
The Netherlands Destination Management Organization (DMO) recently did this by announcing that it would focus its energy on managing the destination rather than promoting it.
Only little-known regions will be the subject of an international campaign. After having announced the inter-seasons, this measure comes as a last resort, relocated the famous letters “I amsterdam”, and made tourists aware of inappropriate behaviour.
IAmsterdam Sign Removed
Place
The notion of place often refers to the location of a service or business. The geolocation of attractions now makes the best-kept treasures accessible to everyone. However, this practice has consequences for the environment since specific sites, which would otherwise have remained unknown, quickly become very frequent.
In response to this phenomenon, the OGD of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, launched a campaign urging visitors to geotag their photos responsibly, using generic coordinates of a site rather than the exact location of the image.
Message by Jackson Hole to Tourists
Similarly, the World Heritage Site of Puerto Princesa, in the Philippines, wanted to limit the number of visitors to specific fragile sites by simply removing them from the tourist cards it produces.
Product
The characteristics of the product directly influence the demand for it. Thus, in a marketing strategy, the product will be intentionally made less attractive. In the case of a destination, we can think of managing tourist flows, such as the imposition of quotas or the introduction of limited time slots.
Bruce Peninsula National Park in Ontario has already implemented this type of measure. Visitors should reserve a four-hour time slot to experience the busiest area of the park.
Price
Raising access tariffs is the fourth strategy discussed in this article. This is a practice that the City of Venice is exploring. Postponed several times, one of its projects aims to introduce a fixed tax to all visitors who do not stay at least one night in the city or do not have the Venezia Unica card.
It should be noted that this type of initiative can be more controversial, particularly in a destination context, particularly natural or heritage sites, since it creates an issue of equity and favours people who can pay.
Demarketing can therefore help manage the growing influx of tourists. However, before arriving there, there is nothing like good territorial planning upstream. Apart from the basic steps, there are various strategies available to adopt for demarketing.
Demarketing is the exact opposite of marketing. In marketing, advertisements are used to increase the sale of a product. Whereas in demarketing, advertisements are responsible for the reduction in the sale of a particular product. Especially it is applied for the things that are facing a shortage.
The above article explains the use of demarketing strategies to get some help in the influx of tourists. It is mainly done to protect nature and prevent any harm to localities.
FAQs
The concept of demarketing was introduced by?
The concept was introduced by Phillip Kotler and Sidney Levy in 1971.
What is meant by demarketing?
In simple terms, demarketing means trying out different ways to reduce the use of a particular product that is in demand but with minimum supply.
What are the types of demarketing strategies?
There are multiple types of demarketing strategies. Some of them are Bait and switch marketing, Price discriminating demarketing, Stock outage demarketing, Differentiation marketing, Crowding cost demarketing, etc.
What are the four Ps of demarketing strategy?
The 4Ps of the demarketing strategy are the same as that of the marketing strategy. Place, Promotion, Product, and Price are the 4Ps included in the basic principle of the demarketing Process.
If you are someone who loves gaming, Google’s Stadia is perfect for your games and entertainment purposes. Launched in November 2019, Stadia make your favourite games instantly accessible no matter where you are.
It’s apparent that Stadia’s technology has been proven and works at scale, as evidenced by the recent successful launch of Cyberpunk 2077 on Stadia, gameplay on all types of platforms, including iOS, extending our slate of YouTube integrations, and our global expansions.
It was an attempt by Google to join the video games and entertainment industry by creating this platform. Unlike Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, Google’s focus was on cloud-based streaming, which means that instead of purchasing real gear like the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X, consumers only need a compatible device, such as a phone or tablet, and they can play from anywhere.
Stadia is a cloud gaming service introduced by Google. It was a new type of gaming platform that does not involve any console requirement to gain gaming experience. Instead, Google Stadia allows the users to play their games on any available screen over the internet.
Google Stadia
Google Stadia was introduced on 19th November 2019 and discontinued on 1st February 2021. Even after being a Google product with a great concept, Stadia failed to create its place in the market.
There can be many reasons for the failure of the Stadia such as:
Unsuccessful Launch
Unfortunately for Google, the program received backlash when it first launched about a year and a half ago. The reviews suggested that the management could have devoted more effort to working out Stadia’s faults. From there, things only seemed to become worse, culminating in the latest studio shutdown and discoveries that made social media news.
Google Stadia Reviews
Whenever one adds in claims of odd money management and an apparent misunderstanding of how the games industry works whenever it comes to AAA ports, the streaming service has had a hard go of it recently. Stadia’s potential employers dropped 68% lower according to the business reports, a year after its unsuccessful launch.
Critics instantly warned users against using the service because of its limited game catalogue and several technical concerns. It has also failed to acquire traction, even though COVID-19 was witnessing one of the most significant increases in gaming popularity in the medium’s history. So, when other gaming platforms gained popularity Stadia was losing its day by day. Which was strange because Google had Stadia’s back.
Google Stadia Active User Count Of The Year 2019-2020.
Poor Advertising Plan
Now, in circumstances like these, at least the advertisements and brand awareness go up. Since this was a gaming platform the creators did try and reach out to its audience (Gen Z) but, Stadia had received its fair share of setbacks on social media. On February 26, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier published an article explaining, Google’s Stadia strategy and also tweeted about it.
Jason Schreier on Google Stadia
The article gave details outlining the platform’s growth from inception to debut in November 2019, “although Schreier claimed that the corporation was spending tens of millions of dollars on each Stadia port that went viral on social media.
Essentially, instead of investing those resources toward independent developers or Stadia’s studios to create unique content for the service, Google was paying Ubisoft and other AAA video game developers ridiculous sums to bring their latest titles to Stadia.”
Paying millions of dollars for games that had already been launched was even more distressing news, given that Google had only announced the closing of its in-house studios a few weeks previously. Instead of being developed by Google, all original content created solely for Stadia will have to come through partnerships with other studios.
Overall, Google STADIA has failed to live up to its creator’s expectations of being a game-changing platform. It doesn’t appear to be getting any better, either, given its bumpy history.
During the launch event of Stadia, There were many promises done by the speaker.
Google Stadia Launch
Stadia is not constrained by the limitation of traditional console systems. Instead, we have built a truly flexible, scalable, and modern platform that allows us to push performance beyond what was previously considered possible. This architecture gives us even more flexibility to scale. And thanks to fast transfer speeds between the Stadia instances in our data center, our platform can connect instances to dynamically expand the capabilities, along with the need of your games. As a developer, you’re used to being forced to tone down your creative ambition, [which is] limited by the hardware. But our vision with Stadia is that the processing resources available will scale up to match your imagination. In this new generation, the data center is your platform. Revealed by Stadia Head of Engineering Majd Bakar during the launch event.
However, when the product was made in use, the reality found was quite different from the explanation. Stadia failed to survive users test and create a place in the market. Many users report claiming Stadia slow servers with poor resolution. Hence, this also added to the list of “drawbacks of Stadia”.
Google is a big name in the market. However, this name is majorly applied in cloud services only. It was the first time creation of a gaming product by Google. Hence, it can be assumed that Google was not aware of the trends going on in the market and might have a misconception about it.
The gaming market no longer lacks any technology-related limits. Instead, it is the place where much new technology takes part as the first trial. Google might have taken the gaming market still as a newbie and didn’t minded to work more on the project.
Stadia’s Game and Entertainment was the first in-house gaming studio developed by Stadia. It was pulled off after one year of discontinuing Stadia. The gaming studio was given the charge of creating exclusive games. However, the decision of pulling it off caused others a hazy impression of Google.
Creating games takes time and the decision of closing the Studio within one year of stadia affected the employees working in the studio with multi-year reassurance. All these indicate the misconception that Google has related to the gaming industry and indirectly caused the failure of the platform as a whole.
Stadia Was Like a Stranded Product on Google’s Platform
The sentence stranded in a place might seem like an exaggeration to use for Stadia. However, in reality, the only connection between Stadia and other Google platforms was from 4K live on YouTube.
These factors can indirectly affect the popularity of newly introduced products. Stadia was too late to realize this. It took the whole year for Stadia to be included in the 2020’s Chromecast with Google TV.
For the initial months, Stadia was known to work with Pixel phones only. However, with the launch of Pixel 6, Stadia was nowhere to be seen in its bundle. Whereas, Stadia was marketed as a major point in the selling of Pixel phone.
Stadia was forgotten by Google at such limits that Xbox provides YouTube premium as its perk. However, Google didn’t consider using the same tactic for its brand. With all these points, it can be assumed that Stadia was long forgotten even before its discontinuation causing a few percent of damage to its popularity which led to its failure.
Conclusion
Google Stadia was created with much hope and as a Google-backed product. Yet, at many points, Google failed to impress the gamers with Stadia causing an ultimate decision of discontinuing the service. Stadia was created as a gaming platform that can be used on any normal screen rather than using the console. However, due to many issues, it was pulled off in 2021 by Google. Some of the estimated reasons behind the failure of Stadia are shared above.
FAQs
What is Google Stadia?
Google Stadia is a gaming platform developed by Google that allows its users to play games on a single platform using the same screen. It is a cloud video gaming platform that does not require any additional hardware to play games in it.
Why did Google Stadia fail?
Google Stadia failed due to many reasons. Some of them are poor advertising plans, improper implementation of strategies, bugs in the service, etc.
Are games on Stadia Free?
The games available on Stadia fall into different categories. One is free and the other requires a subscription. Few games are free on the Stadia to play.
What happened to Google Stadia?
Google Stadia stagnated on 1st February 2021 after its unfortunate failure in creating a name and meeting the user target.
Let’s not bore our app users, people. Let’s give them the ads they deserve.
There’s an app for everything, and they are all rivalling on the way to becoming the ones with the best customer experience. So, what is stopping them? In-app advertising. Google ads can get boring and hamper your customer’s experience. So, why do apps still need them? They need them to make revenue.
Another use is that other apps might need in-app advertising to promote themselves. You would find banner ads and pop-up ads coming on your screens when you least expect them, and this much we can assume that you don’t like it.
So, as app developers, it’s unnatural to think our users would like it. As per a report by InMobi, 70% of surveyed Indian app users say they feel highly repulsed by the experience of intrusive ads popping up in the middle of reading, and playing, and would consider installing if the problem persists.
What this means is that apps have to figure out ways to advertise better. Advertising is only successful when it maximizes sales and minimises unwanted intrusions.
Here’s a look at some ways apps can get creative at in-app advertising:
Inshorts is a popular Indian app with the goal of making news simple and easy to understand in a limited set of characters. Not just a great concept for an app, their recent ad campaign has also been a breath of fresh air.
As a user passes between two news cards, one receives a call from a celebrity. So, you would see Aamir Khan calling you and upon picking up that call you would instantly be greeted by the actor who would then lead you into the phone conversation towards an advertisement of his brand, for example, AU Bank. Jio too tried it out recently with Amitabh Bachchan.
Make the Advertisement an Organic Part of Your App
Tinder has always been ahead of its time. From the very concept of matchmaking, Tinder has been a pioneer at whatever it does, even looking at some of the best ad campaigns that have been done much before anyone else was trying to make personalised ad campaigns.
The famous dating app made use of integrated advertisements in collaboration with brands. These brands would be shown as normal cards to swipe. If a user liked the profile, much like any other profile, they would be directed to a match and inbox with sales offers from the brand and the likes of Zomato and Starbucks had this feature.
What makes this campaign interesting is the copy and the content used in the messaging of these advertisements, which would actually make it sound like you’re talking to a person you have just matched with on a dating app. “Hey, you look delicious! We are not so bad too”, says Zomato’s profile when you match on Tinder.
Time Your Ads Correctly
It’s not the ad, but, its timing that could sometimes annoy the user too. For instance, if you were looking to book a ticket and you were suddenly bombed by a full-page display ad of the same movie, it won’t just be redundant, it would also elongate the process.
Now, on the contrary, cab brands like Uber and Ola can make use of the timing their work allows. For instance, when a user has booked their cab and they are waiting for it, these cab rental apps could show their users and reward them accordingly for watching the ads.
While the “watch the video ad” template has become a staple for many apps, the problem is they wouldn’t let a user make use of the service until they watch the ad. If Ola or Uber were to do this during the wait time, it would not be intrusive and since most people are idle during their waiting times, this could lead to higher watch times and better ad response.
Create Utility Driven Ads
Snickers, a famous chocolate brand, probably needs no introduction, but it sure knew it needed a kick ads ad. This is perhaps why it collaborated with Spotify, a popular music streaming app, to create an impact. The ad wasn’t even an ad, for the most part, that’s the genius.
When users would listen to a song that was out of their typical choice of niche, Spotify would flash a pop-up “You are not you when you are hungry, and neither is your music taste. Stop being so forgetful! Grab snickers and get back to the tracks you love”.
Create Immersive Ads
Another number for Inshorts on this list. While we are recommending a few ideas to many apps, Inshorts is truly out there delivering out-of-the-box ideas for the marketing world at large.
This is perhaps why recently Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors, two of the noticeable leading automobile players in the Indian subcontinent, recently partnered with Inshorts to introduce the launch of their new car in a rather customized template.
Inshorts put a piece of news out on Tata Motors launching a new Kaziranga Edition of flagship cars. These cars take inspiration from the Kaziranga national park in Assam, and so rightfully this news card was designed a bit differently from the rest of the cards. This one had lush green canopies and a rhinoceros running toward the user. Truly making the ad an experience!
Tata Ads on Inshorts App
Use Geotagging
Instead of apps putting up random ads to fill up the blank space, they could narrow down the demographics and make advertising smarter. For instance, when you are watching a YouTube ad, you might sometimes get advertisements in foreign languages that you don’t understand. This is a clear targeting failure.
On the contrary, what brands could do is make ads hyper-local. This would invite smaller and more local players to the arena. Zomato could use this as part of an active strategy where landmarks that advertise with them get a higher rank on the listing and are placed right at the top. This could include restaurants, cafes, pizzerias, patisseries, etc. However, this doesn’t have to stay limited to hotel listings.
They could use this feature to also put out advertisements for other local businesses. The advantages of geotagging include giving users more relevant listings, which they are more likely to act upon.
Amazon Prime Video is into videos anyway, so it makes sense for them to offer video production to their advertisers as well. This is a plan in the making as of April 2022. Advertising Video on Demand (AVOD) would allow advertisers full access to video production, marketing, and reach commensurate with the giant Amazon Prime Videos. While details on this campaign are yet to be out, we do see it becoming a format other OTT biggies pick up on too.
Make them Play
If before you clicked on install, you could actually get a trailer into what you were signing up for, wouldn’t that make the case more convincing! Let us illustrate. Scrabble, the word game, decided to offer Paris free Wi-fi. There was only one condition, the French Capital had to play some games. They had to scan a QR code and play the game to get access to the internet.
Now, the result of this campaign was 1,10,000 minutes of free internet access, but more importantly for Scrabble, it led to a 20% hike in their downloads in the first month!
Skin ads
What do you do if your app offers no annoying ads and it’s a free source app, which means there is no revenue coming in from subscribers or users? This was the case with WeTransfer. You can use WeTranfer to send hefty files that your mail or social media won’t allow passing without cutting it down.
WeTranfer solved that problem for free, and though the paid models are still an option, the brand found that the majority of users only rely on the free version. So, they took to using their home page as an ad. They understood they had a great footfall on their app, and this meant their home page itself could become an ad. So, any brand looking to use its organic reach could use its home page. Smart!
WeTranfer Homepage Ad
Make Use of Creative Filters
Snapchat is full of filters and they would dedicate their creative team to giving you the filter of your dreams. For brands that are looking to make a branding impact, Snapchat offers lenses.
Snapchat Taco Bell Collaboration
Users can use these lenses much like any other filter and go about creating pics that also contain the brand’s logo and sometimes, a code to scan to download the app. Taco Bell has used it, and so has Gatorade. A brilliant way to remind you are cool while also not pitching your products actively.
Conclusion
There are countless ways to make an ad stand out. As the digital world expands, we realize the sky is the limit. Creativity and in-app advertising too can blend.
We see the potential for gamification and geo-tagging to make a big splash in advertising. More and more apps have begun contemplating how to make ads more conversion-friendly.
If you have an idea that brands need to get on, let us know in the comments below.
FAQs
How does advertising on an app work?
Advertisers pay app developers to display their ads on their apps.
What are the creative methods used in in-app advertising?
The use of creative filters, geotagging, and creating immersive ads are some of the creative ways to advertise on an app.
How much does it cost to advertise on a mobile app?
Advertising on an app can cost you around $5 to $10 CPM (cost per mille) that’s the reason app advertising is considered slightly expensive compared to other advertising formats.
Graphic designing is an art that has added a new and bright life to the world of digital marketing. It is a field in which experts create appealing visual content to transmit various messages.
Nowadays, visual content is like the backbone of every company that helps them in reaching their target audiences effectively. As per IBISWorld, the graphic design industry was worth $45.8 billion globally as of 2021.
With the great advancements in the graphics industry, the opportunities to secure stable earnings are increasing day by day. Due to this reason, people are now getting more and more interested in learning and mastering their graphic designing skills.
Now, it has become pretty easy for people to learn skills online without any limitations of time or age. This article will discuss some of the popular graphic design courses that you can pursue online.
Global Graphic Designers Market Size from 2017 to 2022
Graphic design is a popular field that is flourishing with amazing opportunities in today’s time. To learn and master the skill, one can simply opt for an online course and keep on practicing to achieve great results.
The following are the best five graphic design courses that will help you in entering and creating a mark in this thriving field:
Graphic Design Masterclass – Learn Great Design By Udemy
Graphic Design Masterclass by Udemy – Graphic Design Courses
Price
Course Duration
Level
Course Rating
Rs. 3,499
28.5 hrs
Beginner or Intermediate
4.7
The Graphic Design Masterclass (Udemy) by Lindsay Marsh, is one of the best courses to develop skills in graphic designing for beginners and intermediates.
After enrolling in this course, you will be able to become skillful in creating branding packages and logos. You will also be introduced to the concepts like color theory, color blocking, typography, photo layout, and other designing-related skills. Along with all this, there is, even more, to explore in this course.
Udemy offers around 33 subsections of graphic designing skills for all of its students. All the skills are explained practically by the industry experts. The best thing is that you will get lifetime access to all the resources and videos provided by Udemy.
What You Will Learn From the Course?
Master the Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, and Indesign tools.
Learn manipulation and photo editing in adobe photoshop, and create magazine layouts, and editorial spreads by using Adobe InDesign.
Introduction to Affinity Designer and its comparison with adobe photoshop.
A mini-guide to becoming a successful graphic designer.
Creating amazing presentations using photoshop mockups.
Creating social media graphics and YouTube thumbnails.
Graphic Design Fundamentals – Getting Started By CreativeLive
Graphic Design Fundamentals by CreativeLive – Graphic Design Courses
Price
Course Duration
Level
Course Rating
$49
5.30 hrs
Beginner to Intermediate
4
Graphic design fundamentals by the instructor Timothy Samara is another worthy course to enroll in to understand the basic concepts of graphic design. The course contains a total of 18 chapters starting with an introduction to graphic design and ending with fundamentals are forever.
The industry expert, Timothy, with over 25 years of experience also shares his experiences and behind-scene videos implanted in the practical field. Around 32,000 students have already enrolled and benefited from this popular graphic design course.
What You Will Learn From the course?
Learn to prepare a graphic designer toolkit.
Recognizing and practically applying all the fundamentals of graphic designing.
Designing a website, advertisement, layouts, touchpoints, etc.
History of graphic designing and specialized areas to choose from.
Designing and presenting brand identity to the clients.
Fundamentals of Graphic Design by Coursera – Graphic Design Courses
Price
Course Duration
Level
Course Rating
$49
15 hrs
Beginner
4.8
This is another popular and one of the best graphic design courses available online specifically for beginners. You will not only get access to the online classes but also lifetime access to the course’s readings, videos, practice quizzes, and assignments for practical learning. More than 5 lakhs students have already benefited from the course.
In the very first week, you will be introduced to a brief overview of the course and the fundamentals of image-making. In the second week, you will learn about the fundamentals of typography in detailed lectures. The third week will bring up to you the fundamentals of shape and color. The fourth week will enable you to learn the fundamentals of composition. You will also be provided with some additional resources for further learning. It will take you around 15 hours to complete this course from Coursera.
What You Will Learn From the Course?
Get skilled in using direction, weight, scale, space, and texture in composition.
Learn to execute the fundamentals of color including pattern, rhythm, and visuals in your designs.
Learn about design theory, graphics creativity, and color theory.
Discover various image-making tips and tricks to create a series on your own.
The lectures offered have subtitles available in 9 different languages, which makes the learning easy and understandable for more people.
Adobe Photoshop Mastery By Fiverr
Adobe Photoshop Mastery by Fiverr – Graphic Design Courses
Price
Course Duration
Level
Course Rating
$24
13.2 hrs
Intermediate to Advanced
5
Another great course for graphic design is the Adobe Photoshop Mastery course by Fiverr Learn. It is designed for skilled individuals in graphic design for their upskilling. The course contains 107 videos by Daniel Walter Scott and the individual must possess adobe photoshop CC while learning from this course. You will get lifetime access to the resources of the course.
This course contains advanced tips and tricks to stimulate the designing process for individuals who have mastered the fundamentals of photoshop. You will also learn to reshape, bend, and distort images. You will also be able to get skilled in using curves and levels for tone corrections.
This course’s emphasis is on increasing the speed and efficiency of operating design-related tasks and is sure to help you make your mark in the field of graphic designing.
What You Will Learn From the Course?
Master the art of using colors with professional enhancements, corrections, and adjustments.
Advanced touching, healing, patching, and cloning.
Knowledge of many different design tools.
Learn to develop modern visual styles such as double exposures, glitches, and two-tones.
Learn the creation of cinema graphs and parallax images.
Master 3D designs and formulate recyclable mockups.
Beginner’s Guide to Adobe Photoshop: The Essentials By Skillshare
Beginner’s Guide to Adobe Photoshop by Skillshare – Graphic Design Courses
Price
Course Duration
Level
Course Rating
$14
3.4 hrs
Beginner
4
Skillshare’s Beginners Guide to Adobe Photoshop: The Essentials is also one of the best courses offering graphic design skills to beginners. In this course, you will be introduced to a total of 17 projects for practical learning. You will get lifetime access to all of the video lectures present in the course More than 3500 students have already benefited from this skillshare course.
The course consists of 34 video lectures not exceeding 12 minutes each. This makes learning quick and more interesting. After completing this course, you will be able to get skilled in all of the basic designing skills including clone stamp, spot healing, changing backgrounds, layer-masks, summer sale ads, filters, shadow effects, creating graphics, and more.
What You Will Learn From the Course?
Learn about developing sales ads, web banners, posters, and flyers.
Learn to add shortcuts, layer masks, and various other effects.
Get through various resourceful tools including selection tools, healing tools, clone stamp tools, and retouching tools.
Learn to change the background and other parts of images, clean up images, manipulate the colors of images, and more.
Conclusion
The above-mentioned are some of the best and most useful graphic design courses that will help you learn and master the skill to make your mark in the industry. Apart from these, there are certain free graphic design courses available online like Canva’s graphic design basics or Alison’s Visual and Graphic design course. However, such courses are usually short and not as resourceful as the paid ones.
So, if you want to upskill your graphic design skills, you can opt for any of the courses mentioned above as per your level and requirements. All you have to do is go to their official website and enroll in the course of your choice.
FAQs
Can I learn graphic design by myself?
Yes, you can learn graphic design by yourself from online courses. You do not need to have a formal education but you need to have an in-depth knowledge of the fundamentals of design and tools like photoshop to get equipped with graphic design skills.
Does the graphic design require coding?
Most graphic design projects do not require coding. However, you do need some basic knowledge of coding while creating and designing websites or apps.
B2B stands for Business to Business and when there is a transaction of any product or service between two business firms it is said to be a B2B transaction. Payment in such a transaction might be in the form of money or any other kind. This means that it can be a transaction that is quite regular like buying a product or service using money as a means of payment or it can be in the form of barter exchange as well. In barter exchange, two firms can render their services or products to each other instead of paying money.
In the case of monetary transactions, the payment method is quite different from how consumers pay the firms. There is a good deal of difference between the payment method of B2C and B2B transactions. Generally, when there is a B2B transaction, orders are placed in bulk whereas, B2C transactions are rather made in smaller batches since they are for direct consumption. In B2C transactions, there is also the provision of discounts and offers which is usually not present in B2B transactions. Hence, the mode of payment also requires some special alterations when a business is paying a business.
Such transactions required a lot of effort in the earlier times but with the advent of payment startups, the entire process of transactions has become extremely convenient for businesses. These startups are designed to provide technological solutions for a secure and seamless payment experience for businesses. They make use of several apps and widgets that make financial transactions hassle-free at people’s fingertips. Some of the popular startups that support B2B payments in India include BharatPe, EnKash, Airpay, Udaan, etc.
In today’s time, B2B transactions have become more convenient and secure due to the presence of many payment startups. The following are some of the most popular B2B payment startups in India:
BharatPe
BharatPe – B2B Payments Startup in India
BharatPe is a B2B fintech company that focuses on helping small to mid-scale business owners accept payments through all the UPI applications using a single BharatPe QR code. The startup also offers loans to merchants. It was founded by Bhavik Koladiya, Ashneer Grover, and Shashvat Nakrani, in the year 2018 and is headquartered in New Delhi. BharatPe has recently partnered with NBFCs for a program called the “12% Club”. This program shall provide a chance to consumers to invest in BharatPe and earn interest up to 12% without the presence of any lock-in period. Also, consumers can borrow money at the interest rate of 12%.
EnKash
EnKash – B2B Payments Startup in India
It is a B2B payment management and financial assistance platform. This application enables a company to check their cash flow management, and invoices, and most importantly track payments to suppliers or from consumers. It also helps to connect vendors, corporates, and credit givers easily. The company was founded in the year 2016 by Hemant Vishnoi. In, 2020, SBM Bank, YAP, RuPay, and EnKash joined hands to launch the most full-scale business credit card ever, the SBM EnKash RuPay business card.
Airpay
Airpay – B2B Payments Startup in India
This is another popular B2B payment startup in India that helps retail and eCommerce companies to collect contact-less payments easily. Airpay was founded by Amit Kapoor, Kunal Jhunjhunwala, and Rohan Deshpande in the year 2012. The company has its headquarters in Mumbai. The payment platform renders services like net banking, digital payments, mobile POS, payment gateway, contactless payments, financial inclusion, open banking, and financial services.
Udaan
Udaan – B2B Payments Startup in India
Udaan is one of the largest B2B platforms for businesses in India. It was founded in the year 2016 by Vaibhav Gupta, Sujeet Kumar, and Amod Malviya. The startup has its headquarters in Bangalore. It operates in fields like staples, electronics, FMGC, lifestyle, home and kitchen, fruits and vegetables, pharma, and more. The platform helps farmers, small brands, and manufacturers to sell their products to retailers and customers with guaranteed safety and transparency. It helps make the buying and selling process easy with secure payments and smooth logistics.
The name of the startup is pretty evidently derived from the accounting term G-Invoicing. Ginvoicing is a company based in Ludhiana and was founded in the year 2017 by Tarun Jangra. It is a platform that allows you to manage your business easily and more effectively. The platform is meant to solve all your GST-related hassles. It helps collect online payments, accounting, inventory management, collating sales, marketing, purchase data, and more.
Benow
Benow – B2B Payments Startup in India
Another popular B2B payment startup in India is Benow. It was founded by Sudhakar Ram and Soorraj VS in the year 2016. Benow is a platform that specializes in payments and retail space. The startup was formed to promote digital payments and to empower small and medium-scale businesses, brands, and NGOs. It also enables users to get bundle products, EMI, credit points, and much more. The platform is highly focused on Buy Now Pay Later model.
Bulk MRO
Bulk MRO – B2B Payments Startup in India
Another popular name on the list of B2B payment startups in India is Bulk MRO. It is a global supply chain finance platform incorporated in the year 2015, in Mumbai by Gaurang Shah and Devang Shah. Bulk MRO is a trustworthy name in supplying industrial products and emergency goods. It is a B2B platform that helps government healthcare networks and corporations in their operations not only in India but around the globe.
It is a gaming platform founded in the year 2016 in Gurgaon by Akshat Rathee. Initially, NovaPlay was used to pay money for buying games. However, now it has also introduced B2B payment processing services.
Conclusion
Business to Business payments used to be a complex process but with the advancement of technology, many startups have emerged that have made it more convenient and secure. The above-mentioned are some of the most known B2B payment startups in India that are revolutionizing the way transactions used to be made earlier.
FAQs
What is a B2B startup?
B2B startups are also known as enterprise startups. Such startups sell products or services to other businesses rather than or in addition to the individual consumers.
How do I receive a B2B payment?
The following are the ways to make and receive B2B payments:
Checks
Credit cards
ACH transfers
Electronic fund transfers
Online payment platforms
Which are some popular B2B payment startups in India?
Some of the most popular B2B payment startups in India are:
Want to build your own website to publish relevant content, but don’t have the necessary skills? Well, you’re not the only one facing this dilemma. A lot of content creators are equipped with the best content, yet without the required technical knowledge, they fail to build a website.
A CMS (Content Management System) is a tool or SaaS, that helps you upload and publish content on a regular basis, without the need for any technical skills. All you need is to have fresh and original content.
Content Management Systems, abbreviated as CMS, help users curate, manage, edit, and publish content on a website without needing any technical knowledge. It handles and also lets you choose from a collection of templates to create the basic infrastructure of web pages and other functions, and allows you to focus on the content that you publish.
Here is a brief run-through I’ll come up with within this article. But before that let me tell you how these CMS work.
To better understand how a CMS works, let’s compare curating a web page with and without a CMS. Without a CMS, you’ll need to write code for the front end using HTML, CSS, and other scripts; and that isn’t just about it. You will also need to include every media file, and link all databases with your code.
However, with a CMS (Content Management System), all you need is to write down your content in an interface as simple as MS Word itself. You can also link all media files including images, videos from the media library without having to interact with the server.
There are various reasons, you would rather have a Content Management System, instead of acquiring the technical skills and then building your website. However, when it comes to choosing a CMS, it can be a bit tricky.
There are systems such as Magento, that are more popular for creating e-commerce stores while others like WordPress help you publish your blogs. Hence, while choosing a CMS, you need to be sure to make the right choice.
10 Best CMS Options You Should Check Out Today
So here we discuss the 10 best Content Management Systems that you can decide on.
WordPress
Rating
4.6/5
WordPress Website
WordPress is simply one of the best and most popular Content Management Systems. From hosting to a custom domain, WordPress offers you to choose from a number of different themes and plugins, and create your website in a matter of minutes.
WordPress offers users a suite of products including blogs, websites, e-commerce, and domains, along with self-hosted solutions. Also, there are a plethora of templates to choose from with themes meant for portfolios, food or travel blogs, and even e-commerce.
Pros
WordPress CMS is user-friendly, as its origin is from blogging only, it gives you a headstart in this matter.
It has over 54000 plugins, most of which are free to use by WordPress users.
Cons
Sometimes updates in the system can lead to some small problems on the website and to solve them, you may have to go back to the older version.
WordPress has thousands of themes available but some of them contain generic codes that are not needed, which in turn slow down the site.
Pricing
Plans
Price
E-commerce Plan
₹ 1152/month
Business Plan
₹ 640/month
Personal Plan
₹ 160/month
Premium Plan
₹ 280/month
Drupal
Rating
4.4/5
Drupal Website
Drupal is a popular Content Management System, with separate suites for Developers, Marketers, and Agencies. From retail to fintech to e-commerce, Drupal offers solutions for all major industries, and users can efficiently and seamlessly build a custom website using its intuitive interface. Moreover, be it security or scaling, Drupal covers all of it with multilingual support and personalization.
The services that Drupal offers include marketplace, hosting, and training, and makes it simple for users with newsletters, user guides, documentation, and support. You can also choose from a number of themes based on the website or page that you want to build, with the best-in-class tools and services.
Pros
One of the bigges advantages of Drupal is that it is free to use. Anyone can download and use the CMS service according to their project need.
Regular software updates is available, fix bugs that can hinder teh experience of the users.
Cons
The interface of Drupak is not a friendly one and without a developers assistance, it us quite a challenge to manage.
Modules are limited and third-party modelscan create problem inyour website, if they are not optimised at a proper time.
Pricing
Free
Joomla
Rating
4.1/5
Joomla Website
Joomla Content Management System is an extremely flexible platform for content creators across different niches. Joomla offers users thousands of free extensions and templates to choose from, with a multilingual approach.
The websites you create with Joomla are also mobile-friendly, flexible, and extensible, while also granting you multi-user permission levels. Moreover, with resources such as Developer Network and Security Center, Joomla supports its users with Documentation, Framework, and Joomla code.
Pros
The edit of your content in the website is very easy to do.
It is easy to use as the interface is designed in a way that it is user-friendly.
Cons
The number of modules available here are limited.
The complexity of Joomla is evident.
Pricing
Free
Wix
Rating
4.5/5
Wix Website
Wix is a more popular website builder and offers you a collection of more than 500 ready-to-use templates for different niches. Wix furnishes its users with an intuitive and easy-to-use interface, where most of the website can be built just by dragging and dropping elements, be it media files, buttons, or other website elements.
Moreover, the websites that you build using Wix are mobile-friendly, and can easily be viewed on your smartphone’s browser. Also, Wix offers you a custom domain that you can use to match the branding of your business for a more professional approach.
Pros
Wix has one of the biggest template collection to choose from. It provides over 500 templates that you can use.
The interface of the site is extremely user-friendly, it has got a mobile editor through which you can see how the site would look like in through a mobile and edit according to it.
Cons
Once picked, your content cannot be transferred to another template. It is not changeable.
Squarespace is one of the best website designers out there, if not the best; and even that would be an understatement. Be it a professional website to drive traffic, your own portfolio, or even e-commerce, with award-winning Squarespace designs, you can turn your ideas into reality.
Squarespace allows you to hire an expert while also offering connected services and enterprise solutions. Moreover, with resources such as blogs, help guides, webinars, and forums, Squarespace supports you to make the best use of its services in an affordable price range.
Pros
Squarespace offers good number of templates to choose from.
Squarespace provides everything in a single platform, that is widgets, plugins and apps all are built in here.
Cons
Sqarespace is quite expensive and their plans include single websites.
Third-party app, plugins and extensionsre not supported in Squarespace.
Weebly allows you to build a professional and scalable website with customizable web page designs and other powerful tools. Have the liberty to use a drag and drop interface, custom fonts, in-built image editor, video backgrounds, and embed audio and videos with stunning quality with Weebly.
You can build online stores with professionalism along with growing your business with SEO and marketing tools. Maintain your store, manage shipping and track your inventory, all from one place.
Pros
Themes can be changed without any problem.
Interface is extremely user-frienly.
Cons
Customer support is not that great and is quite expensive.
Image editing in Weebly havesome issues and it doesn’t offer anything good.
Pricing
Pricing for Weebly comes in 2 different plans, for the websites and the online stores.
Website Plans
Price
Free Plan
–
Connect Plan
$5/month
Pro Plan
$12/month
Business Plan
$25/month
Online Stores Plans
Price
Pro Plan
$12/month
Business Plan
$25/month
Business Plus Plan
$38/month
Magento
Rating
4/5
Magento Website
Magento Commerce is another more popular choice for users who want to create an online e-commerce website. Magento offers users an easy and intuitive interface with a simple drag and drops feature to build a website.
Magento helps users to create an e-commerce website ranging from SMEs to bigger enterprises with excellent scalability. Moreover, you can build your website in accordance with the niche that your website is based on including digital transformation, mobile commerce, or even looking for global expansion.
Pros
Magento has a mobile-friendly configuration and provides customers with great experience through mobile viewing.
Customization of templates is possible in Magento.
Cons
Magento is quite expensive.
Customization takes time as it is time consuming.
Pricing
Pricing based on annual Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) and Average Order Value (AOV)
Blogger
Rating
4/5
Blogger Website
Blogger CMS, as the name suggests is more inclined towards building blogs, and thus attracts more users who wish to create their own blogs and publish content. From a collection of templates, easy-to-use designs, and page layouts, choose the one that suits your content, and also get a free domain to seamlessly publish content. You can also get a custom domain with a paid plan.
Moreover, you can also get paid with Google AdSense, and point out the content that sells more with the built-in analytics tool that Blogger offers.
Pros
It has got an user-friendly interface, one can use it without any problem.
The speed and security of Blogger is saidto be quite good. One just has to focus on creating content, Blogger deals with the speed and security effeciently.
OpenCart is quite a sought-after Content Management System, for its effective and customizable e-commerce stores. OpenCart offers users an interactive Admin Dashboard, along with User Management features with different roles. It also offers you an in-built affiliate system, discounts, coupons, and special offers for retailers, backup, and restorations.
All these features make OpenCart one of the go-to CMS platforms for e-commerce stores. Also, with all the resources including community forums, documentation, and books, OpenCart offers excellent customer service and support.
Pros
It has various modules and themes from which you can choose from.
It is user-friendly and the setup is easier for new users.
Cons
Customization is difficult and it is not suitable for large businesess.
It doesn’t have good features like other CMS.
Pricing
Free
Rating
4/5
Shopify
Rating
4.5/5
Shopify Website
Shopify is another Content Management System built especially for creating e-commerce websites. It offers you some powerful tools to run your business online and drive sales. Depending on what stage of your business you are in, with Shopify, you can start an online business, move your business online, and even migrate your online business to Shopify. Shopify helps you sell anywhere from online websites to social media, and also advertise and market your business.
Pros
Shopify is really easy to use and the interface is quite simple and people who are not that tech-savvy can also use it.
Various themes are available in Shopify to use.
Cons
The customization of the platform is quite limited.
Choosing the right CMS platform for your startup or business might be difficult but will only help you in the long run. If you are looking for the best CMS platform and website builder for your e-commerce store or blogging then WordPress is the best way to go.
FAQs
Which CMS website is best?
The best CMS website is:
WordPress
Drupal
Joomla
Wix
Squarespace
Weebly
Magneto
Blogger
OpenCart
Shopify
Do you need a CMS for a website?
If it’s a web application, then you don’t have to start with a CMS—you could, but it might be too much overhead and probably not the smartest idea. Basically, any marketing site should have a CMS.
How many types of CMS are there?
There are three broad types of CMS software: open source, proprietary, and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) CMS, including cloud-based solutions.
What is the best free CMS?
The best free CMS for your business is:
WordPress
Joomla
Blogger
OpenCart
Drupal
Is WordPress free or paid?
The core software service in WordPress is free to download and use. However, for WordPress hosting, one has to pay.
The article is contributed by Shashank Jain, Co-founder, Strawfit (Bourgeon Foods LLP)
Owing to a decade of technological advancement and the last few years of the pandemic, there has been a fundamental change in the way businesses and customers engage with each other. After the jolt that the traditional retail sector faced, there’s a rise in India’s currently growing direct-to-consumer phase, with D2C brands thriving as online channels have become the go-to destinations for almost every consumer. For those still struggling with the concept, Direct-to-Consumer, or D2C, is an emerging business model of a customised shopping experience where the product is provided directly to the customer by a business, bypassing any sort of middleman in between, hence being cost-efficient.
With an estimated 700-800 D2C brands valued at over USD 100 billion by 2025, India is expected to be a hotspot for startups. A plethora of emerging service providers in India indicates the total addressable D2C market growth by over 15 times from 2015 to 2025. According to research by Statista, this total addressable market was valued at 33.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, which by 2025 was forecasted to grow almost threefold, making India a hotspot for startups. Currently, the segments that are growing at an ever-increasing speed in the Indian D2C market include consumer electronics and FMCG, with an expected worth of USD 43.2 billion and USD 30.8 billion, respectively, by 2025.
The popularity of the D2C industry is booming and will continue to expand. To increase buyer-seller interaction, making purchasing more engaging, pleasurable, and long-term, brands in this space leverage certain market trends.
Some of these trends that we recommend entrepreneurs in their operations are:
● Sustainable Manufacturing: Consumers are increasingly sceptical of brands that generate revenue through unethical business practices. Brands that are transparent about their business practices, from sourcing raw materials to manufacturing and supplying, generate more goodwill. Transparency creates trust, and people are more likely to buy from brands they trust. Brands that fail to build sustainability into their business models risk becoming less relevant to this new generation of consumers.
● Data Analytics: Until recently, brands had little access to customer data beyond surveys or third-party data. D2C enables brands to understand customers and their demands like never before, thanks to their continual personal connection with their customers through their experiences or surveys. Brands have realised that customer data is a powerful instrument that, when combined with analytics and technology, can be utilised to provide personalised experiences for customers.
● Leveraging Social Media: Social networking is a strong tool for new businesses. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can assist you in reaching an untapped worldwide audience and assist in developing a brand image in the market with existing competitors. Influencers have a strong and tailored hold on specific audiences, making them one of the newest and most powerful marketing tools. A product like a milk flavouring straw for kids, for example, can’t be directly promoted to them and is instead marketed to mommy bloggers and health bloggers. More than just following these trends, it takes a lot of work to create a solid revenue model for your business. Running a business at any stage of development is not easy. For this, it is essential to have proper planning. Here are some of the key takeaways that we believe can help these entrepreneurs make more informed decisions and develop more refined products, especially in the early stages of a business.
● Bring forward a solution: Consumers are smart these days, searching for products that solve their current problems. The most common reason for a startup’s failure is a lack of market demand. You have a market need if your product solves an unpleasant, common, and repeatable problem for a large number of people. If not, then it can be easily overlooked by the customers.
● Focus on the product: The product you create is what makes up the face value of your brand and it’s a crucial task to make your product stand out in the market. Your main focus should be to at least give your product a competitive edge over the current competitors, so it seems like a convenient and better choice.
● Detailed Research: Before starting a business, thorough market research is essential. You have to research current trends, learn about the product, and understand its potential market and what your customers need. It also allows you to visualise your competition by telling you what other products and services like yours are available, customer reactions to them, their prices; etc.
● Financial Modelling: Managing monetary resources can be a tricky part that needs close attention. It is essential to have a well-developed financial model. From funding operations to having precise financial projections for the next few years, having a robust financial model is crucial for a business to grow. Don’t mind taking professional guidance to help you out with these things to avoid any major setback to your business.
● Keep trying and learning: Starting a business requires being inspired, motivated and willing to take risks. While every successful entrepreneur makes many mistakes, that doesn’t stop them from experimenting with their concepts and learning from their own and others’ mistakes. With that said, care also needs to be taken so that there is no undue waste of resources due to this experimenting.
Conclusion
With more people choosing to be independent buyers due to fading technological barriers, we believe that D2C is here to stay. It is an exciting time for entrepreneurs in the country to enter the market, especially with the boom in the startup culture. The times demand that entrepreneurs rethink how they interact with customers and their relationships with them. If played well, D2C can be the most powerful weapon a retail-based entrepreneur can hold.
The world has to come to a point where we can do anything with just a touch or a click. From shopping to dating, everything can be done online. There is hardly anyone who is not taking the benefits of the digital world. It is making our life easier and more convenient. Thanks to this, our money transactions can also be done online.
Digital transactions have taken the world by storm and almost everyone with a smartphone or a computer wishes to switch to digital payments. Not only digital payments are quick, seamless and efficient, but they have also become the need of the hour owing to the pandemic. In this article, we will talk about Stripe, which is a payment processing platform and the best alternatives it has. So. let’s get started.
Stripe is an integrated suite of payment productsfor e-commerce, applications and online marketplaces for accepting and sending out payments, from and to users. Stripe offers payments through the majority of financial technologies encompassing cards, checkout flows, and other digital transaction services that are constantly updated. Moreover, with over 99% uptime interface, scalability and best-in-class ML models, Stripe helps you avoid frauds and scammers and enhance revenue.
Although Stripe is one of the best payment processors, there are other applications which offer similar functionalities with different plans and pricing. Since different websites and applications have different requirements, a single plan might not necessarily cater to the needs of all such applications. Moreover, Stripe still isn’t available to use in some countries and costs more than many other payment processors. Hence, here we compare different payment processors, to help you decide which suits you best.
Alternatives to Stripe Payments Processor:
PayPal
PayPal Website
Paypal is a payments processor, and an excellent alternative to Stripe, owing to its fast working and seamless transactions. It offers payments for both individual retailers and businessmen, and larger businesses and enterprises, which include shopping on eCommerce websites, payment returns, B2B payments, and freelancer fees. PayPal offers all such amenities with buyer protection, for safekeeping of your finances, with an easy-to-set up PayPal account and login.
About 54% of the customers tend to buy a product when PayPal is available at the checkout, which sure doesn’t seem much, but makes a difference nevertheless. For business needs, PayPal allows you to both receive payments from customers all over the world and make payments in over 100 different currencies and 200 marketplaces. It also furnishes 24/7 fraud protection along with seamless integrations through APIs and SDKs. Moreover, Paypal lets you get paid even if you do not have a professional website or an application with email payment requests, invoices, and personalized payment links.
Square payments gateway is all about accepting payments, irrespective of the online or offline market. It helps you accept payments, fast and secure with amenities such as card swipe through Square Reader, ApplePay or Google pay with NFC technology, online payouts, invoices and other digital means. Without any extra costs or long-term contracts, Square makes payouts as fast and seamless as possible, with affordable pricing. It furnishes you with the same costs for every card, with consistent and clear bills to pay monthly.
Amenities for E-commerce
Square offers solutions for selling online as an E-commerce website, as well as on social media such as Instagram. The solutions offered by Square are quite affordable and cost you only after you have actually started selling. Moreover, it offers more than just payment services, for running your established or thriving business, such as SEO to increase your search engine rankings and reach more customers. Square provides flexible tools, tailored to your specific business needs and scalability, and hence, can be suited to any number of enterprises or e-commerce sites.
Features Offered by Square
Square is one of the quickest payment processors which offers to complete transactions within a business day.
Square Point of Sale has an easy-to-set-up interface, offering real-time analytics and an intuitive inventory.
It furnishes the users with a free Square Business Debit Card, to store and spend funds, while also keeping an eye on their cash flow.
Square doesn’t require you to create a merchant account, pay a statement fee, charge-back fee or deal with payment disputes, with the bank.
Be it the security of your data, or suspicious activity around your account, Square offers all-around protection and shields you against monetary fraud.
Adyen
Adyen Website
Adyen is a payments processor which helps you accept payments, expand your domain, enhance conversions and hence revenue, and also offers expert suggestions from experienced professionals. Adyen allows payment through in-app purchases, through websites, and in-store purchases without any location barriers.
Products offered by Adyen
Adyen offers products such as Online Payments, Point of Sale, Platforms, and Unified Commerce with global coverage and an effort to increase authorization rates. Embedded dashboards with organized statistics can be quite helpful when analyzing customer data to get insights on performance and reporting. Adyen’s Point of Sale offers a certified PCI-compliant terminal with simple API integrations and robust platform stability. Platforms allow you to accept payments with your preferred interface on a website, mobile application or through the point of sale along with faster checkouts and any preferred currency.
Features Offered by Adyen
The most wholesome feature of Adyen is that it offers global acquiring through a single platform without any integrations, saving you the trouble of managing different payment methods.
With cards ranging from Credit cards to Master cards to Alipay wallets, Adyen offers users a plethora of payment methods, to add to their checkout.
Adyen uses a data-driven risk management approach, and with the help of a cross-country data network, identifies frauds behind false declines and monetary cheats.
With the help of ML-driven models, Adyen helps you increase revenue with better authorization rates, customer experience, and low payment costs.
Adyen also allows users to understand customer behaviour, geography, payment flow, approvals and declines through insights into customer data.
Venmo
Venmo Website
With over 60 million users, Venmo helps clients pay and accept payments fast and safely. With Venmo, you don’t just pay; you get to connect with friends and interact with emojis and stickers. You also get to manage your privacy settings, with no account set-up or money transfer costs. Venmo also allows you to seamlessly transfer money between your Venmo and bank accounts respectively.
Venmo for Business
Venmo allows you to accept payments with in-app purchases, online purchases, or in person, in a way very similar to the transactions between your friends, giving you, and your customer, a personalized experience. The checkout is seamless and familiar. Moreover, using Venmo Business allows you to get noticed by the 60 million other Venmo users, where your friends and customers can share their personalized experiences on their feed, in turn, boosting your reach. With just a single login credential, you can switch between business and personal profiles, and manage the business profile efficiently. Venmo also offers touch-free checkout with the use of unique QR codes for your business.
Features Offered by Venmo
Venmo offers a business suite, in-app and online payments as well as Venmo debit cards.
You get to discover places your contacts visit more often, and what they buy; while also being discovered for your side hustles, to grow your own business.
Venmo Debit card is another such utility it offers, that helps you pay your favourite stores and also get cashback, while all the activities involving the card can be monitored through the Venmo application.
Authorize.net
Authorize.net Website
Authorize helps you make and accept payments with a variety of different options such as debit/credit, card e-checks to digital payments, among others. With a developer centre equipped with APIs, SDKs, and the best integration solutions such as a simple integrated ‘Buy Now’ button, Authorize offers solutions for eCommerce, Point of Sale, and card payments, all under one suite.
E-commerce Solutions Offered by Authorize
It can often be tricky to find the payment processing solution that fits all your business needs; lucky for you, Authorize helps you with all of that and more. Payment gateways authorize and process customer transactions until the purchase is made and the money transferred. This involves the authorization of the funds, then initializing payment and finally transfer of money from the customer’s card to your merchant account. Authorize helps you with not only the above but also comes with PCI-DSS compliance, fraud protection and prevention, solutions for multiple payment types and automated payments.
Features Offered by Authorize
Authorize offers 13 fraud filters, which help identify and prevent you from being duped of your money. These filters include Velocity filter, IP filter, and transaction filter among several others.
Authorize furnishes you with a Customer Information Manager with information such as billing, shipping, and payment, in compliance with PCI DSS standards.
Automated Recurring Bills is another feature offered by Authorize which assists users with recurring, monthly instalments, or subscription-based plans.
For avoiding lost sales and payment interruptions, Authorize constantly keeps your card information updated. This also helps deliver customers, an amazing experience.
Get paid faster with Invoices. Invoices can be sent via customized email with your logo, and get paid from any mobile device.
The above-mentioned are some of the best alternatives to Stripe, which offers equally proficient functionality and features. The cost per transaction for most payment processors differs by less than 1-2%, and most of them have similar transaction charges. All in all, the e-commerce industry is on the rise, and you might need an online payment processor to keep up with industry standards.
FAQs
What is Stripe?
Stripe is an integrated suite of payment products for e-commerce, applications and online marketplaces for accepting and sending out payments, from and to users.
What are some best alternatives of Stripe?
Some of the best alternatives of Stripe are:
PayPal
Square
Adyen
Venmo
Authorize.net
Why Stripe is popular?
Stripe is popular because of its fast and secure payment processing.
Digital transformation is accelerating at an astonishing rate. Businesses are changing how they organize and operate. Companies can benefit from adopting digitally native concepts to remain technologically relevant. They must embrace new ways of working to stay consistent with digital advancement. Time and efficiency are vital to creating new digital products and services within specific time frames.
Many conventional organizations are shifting towards having multidisciplinary teams with various capabilities. Multidisciplinary, collaborative teams are not a new concept in the current workplace. IT professionals have regularly worked alongside multiple departments to create digital solutions. These collaborations have become increasingly common and will continue to be a necessity in the future.
Currently, digital transformation is being implemented at a rapid speed. These tech solutions are solving an ever-expanding spectrum of challenges and activities. All businesses should ensure that their products and services are ahead of the competition and fulfil customer needs. To achieve this, many companies are opting for fusion teams.
Fusion teams represent a new age of value creation. A fusion team combines technology or analytics and business expertise and shares responsibility for both business and technology outcomes. Fusion teams are multidisciplinary and are not grouped by roles and tasks within companies.
In fusion teams, the responsibility for the solutions they create is shared. Individuals are put together based on results and not on business operations. These teams are formed to digitalize company capabilities. This is done by using technological solutions to achieve business or consumer goals.
A fusion team is created by putting together many experts from different business areas. These individuals share business goals and relate with their teams rather than their areas of expertise.
These teams have leaders who go above and beyond the traditional responsibilities of agile product owners. They drive the strategy, planning, and resourcing for their teams, and tend to have full responsibility for results.
Fusion teams vary from conventional interdepartmental teams in one significant way. They can implement their innovations directly to users since they have all of the expertise required to develop a functional product.
Projects, activities and responsibilities are distributed effectively throughout the company to run concurrently. This avoids the administrative layer between project creation and deployment.
Benefits of Fusion Teams
Fast-Paced Project Development
With fusion teams, products can be released about 2.5 times faster than traditional methods. This is done by eliminating interdepartmental assessments and middle-level management, which monitors larger projects and causes roadblocks in the development of the project.
Autonomy and Accountability
Fusion teams provide complete freedom to respond to challenges and opportunities as they occur. They are also allowed to create products based on the ways they feel will perform the best.
Autonomy is encouraged and accountability is shared among the team members. If a product is late or fails to function properly, the entire team bears the brunt. Fusion teams enhance both individual efforts and reward effective collaboration.
Effective knowledge sharing
Multidisciplinary teams provide better knowledge sharing across the organization by frequently engaging with colleagues. They improve information flow and allow employees to effortlessly learn from one another. Such arrangements enable easy access to information that would otherwise be unavailable.
Better products and solutions
Each team includes business specialists, who have industry-specific knowledge and are skilled with all functional procedures. This improves the chances that the solution will provide the intended results.
When subject-matter experts who are connected to consumers or internal users work on technology, the resulting product or solution is more likely to offer value and foster employee and customer-centric experiences.
How Are Fusion Team Leaders Different From Others?
Fusion teams are speeding up digital transformation in a variety of important business areas such as product development, direct marketing, customer experience, operational efficiency, data gathering, and distribution processes.
Experienced fusion team leaders have good digital discernment that allows them to effectively align team outputs with business objectives. They are responsible for the risks associated with their technological decisions, such as using no-code platforms or relying largely on IT professionals throughout the product lifecycle.
When it comes to enhancing digital judgement, CIOs play a vital role by giving access to IT subject matter experts who assist fusion team leaders in understanding the impacts of their technological decisions. These are a few ways in which the fusions teams differ from traditional teams.
Do You Need Fusion Teams in Your Startup?
The short answer is, yes. Because fusion teams create a solution to improve digital/company operations or customer satisfaction on their own. Organizations with cross-functional fusion teams and business-IT collaboration are significantly better positioned to respond to unexpected difficulties quickly with increased confidence. They can operate efficiently and change directions quickly while generating more value for the company.
Similarly, low-code and no-code platforms are making citizen development increasingly easier and more accessible. These platforms use drag-and-drop features and cloud-based technologies to function independently while getting integrated with current IT infrastructures. Therefore, they’re an easy solution for startups looking to deliver new applications quickly, safely and economically.
How to Set up a Fusion Team for Your Business?
Organizations that are new to fusion teams should start small and focus on relevant problems to ensure early success and prepare the road for future fusion-driven projects.
When it comes to forming a fusion team, the best approach is to first establish your intended business goal and then assess the existing IT organization to determine current performance.
You’ll have to figure out where fusion teams might be useful. Management should recognize that different kinds of employees require different forms of management and plan accordingly.
Implementing a fusion team involves a shift in work culture and the selection of the right business tools:
Building a culture of responsibility is crucial. Fusion team members should equally share success and take equal responsibility for failure.
The tools that are used in the organization should be used and understood by non-technical team members at various phases of work processes. This typically necessitates a move from high-code, technical platforms and processes to low-code or no-code technological platforms.
Things to Know Before Building a Fusion Team
Maintain a small team and remember that a minimal viable team can be as small as three key team members. Rather than overloading the team, bring in outside resources that can offer time and skills on a flexible basis.
For many fusion teams, low-code platforms are an essential part of their tech stack. These platforms enable “citizen developers” (workers with low or no technical expertise) to build a wide range of sophisticated applications, including automation, digital functions, workflows and processes, and a wide range of other digital solutions without requiring the need for IT assistance.
Fusion teams provide operational autonomy and enable self-organization and direction. Multidisciplinary fusion teams can provide you with the opportunity to create, operate, and manage digital strategies independently. It aids in process automation, and operational waste reduction, and increases the efficiency of the processes. Also, people appreciate taking responsibility for their work and seeing how it affects the organization.
Conclusion
The steep growth of fusion teams is assisting companies in avoiding some of the most significant roadblocks to timely digital delivery, such as a scarcity of digital expertise, and overloaded IT services.
Launching a new project or initiative led by a fusion team can assist a company in exploring the benefits of the new concept in speeding up the digital transformation process and is probably the right way to go in this fast-paced digital world.
FAQs
What are fusion team?
A fusion team is a team that combines analytics and business expertise and shares responsibility for both business and technology outcomes.
What should you know before building fusion teams?
Make sure the members of your fusion team are familiar with low-code platforms and make sure the team is small.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Cisco.
Cisco is a networking equipment corporation, that designs, manufactures, and sells its products. Cisco might not be the only corporation that has developed network nodes. So, what accounts for its victory?
The name “Cisco” is an acronym for San Francisco, where the company was founded in 1984 by Stanford computer scientists Sandy Lerner and Leonard Bosack. Cisco Systems Inc. is a networking multinational corporation based in the United States.
Cisco was the very first company to provide routers that could handle several internet protocols. Their early devices were also distinguished by their traditional CPU architecture. Their technology was cutting-edge, and hardware was rarely an issue.
Cisco isn’t a household brand, but it is well-known. They are one of the world’s largest networking firms, with a market capitalization of over $200B, ranking them at number 64 on the Fortune 500 list.
Here’s learning all about Cisco, its Founders and Team, Funding and Investors, Business and Revenue Model, Growth, Challenges Faces, Name, Tagline, Logo and more.
As of January 26th, 2022, Cisco released its Data Privacy Benchmark Study for 2022, a yearly worldwide examination of security business practices that emphasizes the influence of privacy on enterprises and their perspectives on data protection.
Privacy is mission-critical, according to the 2022 research, with 90 per cent of respondents considering it a business requirement. According to the poll, privacy expenditure continues to climb, and businesses see a strong return on investment from privacy spending.
As of January 20th, 2022, Cisco has announced an extension of the Cisco Catalyst 9000 range, which is built on the powerful Unified Access Data Plane (UADP) ASIC silicon, to provide additional enterprise-grade switching capabilities to the industrial edge for industries like utilities, oil and gas, highways, and rail.
As companies strive to increase economies, employee safety, and business agility and promote hybrid work, functional connectivity in industrial areas is rising at an exponential rate. As operational technology (OT) devices are integrated onto corporate networks, IT knowledge is necessary to expand and protect the network as the operational world advances.
About Cisco
Cisco Systems is a multinational technology corporation headquartered in the United States that specialises in computer networking.
Cisco networking services link computing devices, and communication networks with people, enabling individuals to access and transmit data regardless of computer system type, location, or time.
As a company that sold its products mostly to other businesses, Cisco did not become a household name, but in the second decade of the 21st century, it was one of the largest corporations in the United States. Cisco was founded in 1984 and has its headquarters in San Jose, California.
Cisco is the only company that can assert a ‘legacy’ in a market as youthful as networking systems. Cisco’s networks not only carry 85% of all Online traffic; the corporation actively utilizes the Internet to operate its businesses, from purchases made online and stock management to employee evaluations and travelling expenditures.
Cisco – Logo and Meaning
The two towers of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, are shown in Cisco’s company logo.
Cisco Logo
The company’s engineers were insistent upon using lower case “cisco” in its early years since the term “Cisco” was taken from the city name San Francisco.
Cisco – About Founders and Team
Cisco was founded by Sandra Lerner and Leonard Bosack.
Sandra Lerner and Leonard Bosack, founders of cisco
Cisco was created by Sandra Lerner and Leonard Bosack, (then) a married couple who met as students at Stanford University. They continued working at the institution after graduating in 1981, supervising the computer facilities of two distinct departments.
They were strongly influenced by Standford’s technology from the early 1980s. Bosack used technologies developed by other Stanford employees in the 1970s to connect their individual computer networks.
He and Lerner realised that router technology, as it was known at the time, could be extremely inexpensively adapted for large-scale usage outside of the institution. Cisco (originally called “Cisco Systems”) was created in December 1984 by the two, who named the business after the city of San Francisco. Cisco eventually bought Stanford’s proprietary technology.
Cisco’s initial product, a network interface card for Digital Equipment Corporation computers, was introduced in 1985. The next year, it had its first major success with a router that supported numerous network protocols. Lerner was fired from Cisco in 1990, shortly after the firm sold its first stock to the public, and Bosack also quit.
Chuck Robbins became the CEO of Cisco replacing John Chambers.
Chuck Robbins, CEO of cisco with John Chambers, ex-CEO of cisco
This revitalized the company. Chuck Robbins brought an outside perspective as he had been at that company for the past 17 years and this did help the company as they shifted their focus to cloud-based networking and this picked up the company from the fall.
They sold to consumer companies like Technicolor for 600 million dollars and invested in newer startups like Velocloud. And in February of 2017, they launched their cloud-based secured internet gateway called Cisco Umbrella. And just 2 years ago, they bought an AI-driven business intelligent company called accompany for 270 million dollars and today they are doing better than ever before.
Cisco was off to a pretty rough start due to inner conflicts among members, but their small team made things happen.
In 1985 they sold their very first product which is a network interface card which they sold to Digital Equipment Corporation. But the following year was the one when they came out with their first blade successful product. This was simply a router. What made it special was that it served multiple network protocols. This router was so successful that it required more cash to expand and as the result, it turned to investment.
In late 1987, the venture capitalist from Sequoia Capital took control of the company. This might have appeared to them as the right thing to do, but it later came back to bite them. Just a couple of months after they came, they changed to the president and CEO of Cisco. The new CEO didn’t get along well with the founders of the company.
Despite this, the company continued to grow and on February 16, 1990, the company went public on NASDAQ with a market cap of 224 million dollars. But unfortunately soon after, in August 1990, Sandy Lerner and Bosack both left the company. They walked away with 170 million dollars. As for Cisco systems, they were still doing good, but they completely transitioned from a family-owned business to a very corporate business.
In the early 1990s, they used their savings and put it towards a few part companies like grand junction and similar other companies that formed the capital business unit.
Cisco – Employees
Chuck Robbins – Chairman & CEO
Eric Wenger – Senior Director, Technology Policy, Global Government Affairs
Matt Swartz – Principal Engineer
Bill Gerhardt – Managing Director – Strategy and Business Development
Tal Schierau – Sr. Director, Customer Experience
Caroline Baker – Executive Producer, Unhackable with Mike Storm, a Security Podcast Series
Jon Koplin – Managing Director EMEAR, Cisco Investments and Corporate Development
Kelly Crothers – Director of Employee Experience
Cisco – Business Model
Cisco earns money through selling networking and communications hardware and software, which represents the Internet’s backbone.
Applications: The selling of software-oriented services that sit on top of Infrastructure Platforms, such as collaboration (Cisco TelePresence, for example), analytics software, and, the internet of things (IoT) generates revenue.
Infrastructure Platforms: The selling of fundamental networking technologies such as routing, switching, data centre devices, and wireless yields revenue.
Services: The provision of support services and technical consulting generates revenue.
Security and Other products: Revenues are derived from the sale of threat detection, management and security products and cloud and system management tools. This segment also used to house the company’s Service Provider Video Software and Solutions business, which was hived off in 2018.
“The networks that we build we’re going to have to think about fundamentally differently, there is no room for technology religion,” Mr. Robbins said.
Over more than three decades, Cisco Systems became a Silicon Valley giant partly because of one facet of its business: technological complexity.
Managing Cisco’s many varieties of networking equipment, which help computers exchange data, became such a convoluted process over time that customers who learned to do so became loath to try competing products. But that pattern can’t go on, according to Chuck Robbins, Cisco’s chief executive, who took over the company in 2015. At Cisco’s annual technology conference, he declared that technical shifts were affecting how all companies used the internet, forcing Cisco to rewrite its product playbook.
Cisco has raised a total of $2.5M in funding over 1 round. This was a Series A round raised on Jan 1, 1987.
Date
Stage
Amount
Investor
Jan 1, 1987
Series A
$2.5M
Sequoia Capital
Cisco – Investments
Cisco has made 210 investments. Their most recent investment was on Oct 7, 2020, when Illusive Networks raised $24M.
Date
Stage
Amount
Organization Name
Oct 7, 2020
Series B
$24M
Illusive Networks
Aug 5, 2020
Grant
$25k
Respira Labs
Apr 2, 2020
Series C
$230M
Illusive Networks
Jan 29, 2020
Venture Round
$8.6M
Illusive Networks
Oct 30, 2019
Venture Round
$7.6M
Illusive Networks
Mar 20, 2019
Series C
$27M
Illusive Networks
Mar 12, 2019
Venture Round
$50M
Illusive Networks
Jan 2, 2019
Series G
$10M
Illusive Networks
Dec 1, 2018
Grant
$300k
Illusive Networks
Oct 3, 2018
Series D
$30M
Illusive Networks
Cisco – Acquisitions
A total of 237 businesses have been acquired by Cisco. A few of them are as follows:
Acquiree Name
About Acquiree
Date
Amount
Replex
Replex provides software solutions.
Oct 25, 2021
–
Epsagon
Epsagon is a privately held, modern observability company with offices in New York and Tel Aviv.
Aug 13, 2021
$500M
Kenna Security
Kenna is a SaaS risk and vulnerability intelligence platform that accurately measures risk and prioritizes remediation efforts.
May 14, 2021
–
Socio
Powering in-person, virtual, and hybrid event success.
May 12, 2021
–
Sedona Systems
Sedona Systems is a creator of an IP/optical converged control platform
May 11, 2021
$100M
Dashbase
Dashbase empowers you to deliver high quality VoIP services.
Dec 22, 2020
–
Slido
Slido is an audience interaction platform for meetings and events.
Dec 7, 2020
–
IMImobile
IMImobile is a cloud communication software that helps users manage customer interactions at scale.
Dec 7, 2020
£543M
Banzai Cloud
Bringing Cloud Native to the Enterprise
Nov 16, 2020
–
Portshift
Kubernetes-native security solution, single pane of glass for containers and Kubernetes security.
Oct 1, 2020
–
Cisco – Growth
Cisco Systems Inc. has been on a goal for the past few years: to conquer the data networking business, just like IBM did with mainframe computers and Microsoft and Intel did with pcs.
Cisco, situated in San Jose, Calif., has gone on a significant acquisition binge to achieve this lofty aim, purchasing 14 firms since late 1993. Cisco evolved and adapted to its ever-changing surroundings. During the mid to late 1990s, Cisco adapted to the internet protocol as the internet age progressed.
They introduced devices such as the ASA 5200 and GSR (Gigabit Switch Router) routers, but the dot-com bubble, like that of any other technological business at the time, had a significant impact on their growth. But, more than any other technological business, Cisco was able to reap the rewards of the dot-com bubble.
Cisco had become the most valuable firm in the world by late March 2000, after surpassing Apple in the game. When the dot-com market collapsed, Cisco Systems, like Oracle and Dell, suffered a huge drop. However, because none of the firms had achieved the same heights as Cisco Systems, they were not as badly affected.
Cisco Systems intends to dominate its industry and has already made 237 acquisitions since its inception. While many acquisitions are stressful, Cisco’s revenues and net profits have more than quadrupled since 1996. The key is to look for organisational synergies before making a purchase.
The circumstances in the early 2000s provided an ideal opportunity for Cisco’s competitors to enter the market. Juniper Networks, the largest rival, was adamant about passing the IP and MPL package. They published their first part a few years before in 1999, but this is when they started to take off.
Cisco’s market share was eroding, and they now own 30% of the market. Cisco swiftly countered by introducing more powerful processing cards and GSR routers. A6 are application-specific integrated circuits, which they created as well.
They were particularly popular with Bitcoin and theory mining, and in 2004, they began migrating to CSR-1, a new high-level platform. They also received IOS-XR, a new software architecture. Cisco was able to recover from the dot-com bubble thanks to these reforms, and it began to thrive again.
Cisco – Mistakes and Downfall
Cisco made the mistake of attempting to become a household name in 2006. They began by renaming themselves Cisco rather than Cisco Systems. They’ve also spent a lot of time and money advertising links to these items, as well as their prospective consumer costs.
They were also attempting to focus on their conventional business at the same time. They were also seeking to expand globally and enter new markets while all of this was going on. For example, they attempted to develop a foothold in India by investing $1 billion in a global centre of ease in Bangalore.
They were also attempting to acquire their way into new markets on top of all of this. But here’s the thing: one person can only do so many things at once and be effective at all of them. And Cisco’s attempt to achieve all of these things at the same time was doomed to fail. Despite their efforts, their opponents were rapidly gaining momentum.
They faced domestic rivalry from Juniper Networks, as well as international competition from Huawei, which has recently gained a lot of attention. Cisco’s revenues were so low as a result of all of this that they chose to slash their spending by $1 billion each year in 2011. What precisely did they do to achieve this?
Mostly by laying off workers. They fired 3000 people right away, and hundreds more were granted early retirement packages and other benefits. After everything was said and done, 10,000 jobs were lost, accounting for 14% of their workforce. Cisco was clearly in a poor situation.
Cisco sold eastbound lines to Belkin International in 2013, and this interchanged from the consumer to the network side. Years of mistakes, however, continued to have disastrous repercussions. They had to reduce 4000 and 6000 positions in 2013 and 2014, respectively.
Cisco – Future Plans
Over the previous two decades, Cisco has reaped the benefits of the internet’s growth and increased traffic. Cisco predicts that worldwide network traffic would expand by 26% annually until 2022, thanks to the expansion of online services such as video streaming and gaming.
“Innovation requires focused investment, the right team and a culture that values imagination,” said Chuck Robbins, chairman and CEO of Cisco. “We are dedicated to transforming the industry to build a new internet for the 5G era. Our latest solutions in silicon, optics and software represent the continued innovation we’re driving that helps our customers stay ahead of the curve and create new, ground-breaking experiences for their customers and end users for decades to come.”
Cisco intends to bring its 75,000 employees back into the office once the epidemic has passed, while still allowing for remote work. After converting its entire worldwide staff to remote work, the IT giant is taking efforts to ensure that employees can continue to work from home, such as strengthening networks to allow for more remote access to corporate databases.
“How can we improve the robustness and resilience of our networks and connectivity?” “How do we scale up much more effectively,” Cisco’s chief operating officer, Irving Tan, explained. “There’s a lot to learn, and it’s still early in the game.” By equipping individuals and businesses with problem-solving skills and revolutionary technology through Cisco Networking Academy, they want to offer the advantages of digitalization to one billion people by 2025.
Cisco – FAQs
What does Cisco do?
Cisco Systems is a multinational technology corporation based in the United States that specialises in communication networks.
When was Cisco founded?
Leonard Bosack and Sandy Lerner founded cisco on December 10, 1984.
How does cisco make money?
Cisco earns money through selling networks and telecommunications software and hardware, which represents the Internet’s backbone.
PV Vyshnavi
Pratyusha Srivastava
