Fashion has been an inbuilt statement in our lives, fashion eCommerce startups are making a good mark as they are gathering a lot of varieties of products.
Clothes, jewellery, and other accessories are taking away a major part of our lifestyle and shopping is one of the most tiring tasks, to click for a good product involves lot of time, confusion and trials.
Top 5 Fashion E-commerce Startups to Build Your Wardrobe.
Myntra is one of the successful fashion Indian e-commerce companies, with their headquarters in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It was founded in 2007 by Ashutosh Lawania, Mukesh Bansal and Vineet Saxena. Initially, the company used to sell personalised gift items such as T Shirts, mugs, mouse pads and others.
Myntra
In 2011, Myntra began selling fashion and lifestyle products and stopped it’s personalized product service. Myntra was acquired by Flipkart in 2014 and then, it has grown many folds, it is working independently as well as a part of Flipkart. It offers more than 350 Indian and international brands, it also has a 30 day return policy which makes customers comfortable.
Praveen Sinha, Lakshmi Potluri, Arun Chandra Mohan and Manu Jain
Launch
2012
It was founded in 2012 by Praveen Sinha, Lakshmi Potluri, Arun Chandra Mohan and Manu Jain, the company has its headquarters in Gurugram, India. Jabong sells shoes, apparel, accessories, home decor and furniture.
Jabong
The e – store carries over 1000 brands and over 90000 products. Jabong is one of the largest e commerce business in India. It is keeping pace with new trends and fashionable products, that is why, it has scored well in selling goods to customers.
Voonik
Startup Name
Voonik
Headquarter
Bengaluru
Founders
Sujayath Ali, Navaneeth Krishnan
Launch
2013
Voonik has got some unique features, it provides suitable products according to your style and personality, this is why it stands different from other fashion startups. It was founded in 2013, by Sujayath Ali, Navaneeth Krishnan. Voonik was launched as a personal mobile application, before being introduced as a web platform.
Voonik
It has become user friendly platform, by asking customers questions about their choice and personality. The application fetches answers and provides outfits according to the individual information, it made various developments and improvisations for a customer better experience.
Limeroad was founded by Suchi Mukherjee in 2012. Limeroad has its own speciality waving in a new path, it allows you to create your own look-on a virtual scrapbook- using products from thousands of vendors on it’s site, and can share it with others. If you are not the creative type, you want to buy a look created by someone else.
Limeroad
You can also find styles by subscribing to limeroad feed or follow people whose fashion you like. The creator of the look gets reward points and buyers get full fashion package at one place, limeroad is one of the best destinations to find beautiful products for women.
Kraftly
Startup Name
Kraftly
Headquarter
New Delhi
Founders
Saahil Goel
Launch
2015
Kraftly was founded in 2015 by Saahil Goel, and has its headquarters in New Delhi. The company started as C2C. Mobile flea Market platform and focused on selling handcrafted products, and now it has a great collection of women’s clothes, jewellery and accessories, footwear, toys, and more. Kraftly bridges gap between sellers and buyers, where people can sell their artefacts apparels, home decor items.
Kraftly
Here, sellers have an advantage of chatting with the buyers which enables direct contact between the two, helping them understand their needs properly. Sellers can upload pictures of their products into the kraftly app and sell. It’s a great platform for people who want to earn money by their art and craft, therefore unique products come up in this way, where customers have access to a variety of products and not the routine ones all the time.
And these fashion eCommerce startups are going around different brands, making customers comfortable having all at one place, keeping track with styles and latest trends, fashion startups are running out well, they have developed their technology and providing a variety of options and trials.
So, that was all about Top 5 fashion eCommerce startups of India.
When it comes to making and posting videos online, YouTube and Vimeo are the two most popular platforms in the market. That’s why the question is often asked about YouTube vs Vimeo, which one is better? They are both amazing video sharing platforms with their respective advantages and disadvantages.
By 2019, video content is predicted to command about 80% of all web traffic. The businesses have to start thinking about how video fits into the long-term marketing strategy and attracting more and more audience, taking it seriously will help the business grow.
Before diving into making videos, it’s important to figure out where one is going to host them. YouTube is the largest video hosting platform on the web, but it might not be the best choice for every business.
YouTube has a monopoly over the video-sharing industry and only recently has other services such as Facebook, Instagram and Netflix have risen to pose as a threat. With over 300 hours worth of video being uploaded to the site every minute, YouTube might look virtually indefatigable in the video-sharing space. YouTube also gets over 1.9 billion monthly active users to its site, making it one of the most visited websites in the world.
Compared to YouTube, Vimeo’s stats look tiny. But Vimeo has been around for longer than YouTube and managed to thrive amongst the heavy competition.
If one wants to directly upload the videos to a blog, it might be not feasible as some blog sites are not designed to stream videos.
Videos are large files and most hosting providers don’t offer servers optimized for video streaming. If multiple users access videos on the website at once, then this could crash the server.
On top of that, each user has a different type of internet connection. The high quality videos will take forever to load on slower internet connections.
On the other hand, video hosting platforms like YouTube and Vimeo are designed to serve videos. They have server technology and to offer a far superior video streaming experience.
YouTube vs Vimeo: Which one is better?
Detailed Comparison Between YouTube and Vimeo
Pricing
YouTube and Vimeo both are profit-making companies. Their pricing options are based on how they make money.
YouTube
YouTube is free. Because they make money by showing advertisements. The advertisements are displayed inside the video, in the sidebar, and inside the YouTube app. It offers a paid subscription called YouTube Red for viewers. This service allows us to get rid of advertisements as well as access YouTube original shows.
However, as a content creator one will be able to upload as many videos as he likes for free. Initially, YouTube won’t allow uploading videos longer than 15 minutes. However, the limit is increased by verifying the account.
Vimeo
Vimeo’s business model is quite different than YouTube. They make their money by selling a video hosting services, so publishers and businesses can offer their users an ad free viewing experience. It offers a range of pricing plans starting with the free plan, which is limited to 500 MB of storage per week and 25GB per year.
Users can join Vimeo Plus, Pro, or Business plans. Each one of them offers different upload limits and features. A Free plan is quite limited in terms of storage and features. Users can start with Vimeo Plus, it costs $7 per month and will provide with 5 GB of storage per week.
YouTube vs Vimeo
User base & SEO
YouTube
YouTube is the most visited site in the US and is among the top three worldwide. YouTube has a massive user base and currently has over 1.9 billion monthly active users. Also, YouTube being a Google product means that the users have access to the SEO tools and analytics that Google has to offer for free.
Vimeo
Vimeo currently is the third most popular video site on the internet, just under YouTube and Netflix. Vimeo has only 170 million monthly active users. It is a fraction of YouTube’s monthly active users, but it has 90 million registered users under its various subscription plans. This is not shabby considering the number of monthly users using the platform.
Vimeo also provides its members with precise analytics, SEO tools, and insights stats on views, comments, likes, shares, total plays, and geographical data. But it is only the paid plans that receive to access them.
Branding & Community
YouTube
YouTube is more of a place where anyone can upload their videos and be able to share it with the rest of the world. YouTube can take down videos even without notice in case it violates their changing policies. YouTube also doesn’t focus much on what content is being uploaded – as long as it does not violate any of YouTube’s policies, it is allowed to be uploaded to YouTube.
This is reflected in YouTube’s community and ecosystem as well. You’ll be hard-pressed to find comments that don’t verge on being either too fanboyish or too hateful. That is not to say you won’t be able to get useful or constructive feedback – a diverse group of people use YouTube and for various reasons, which makes obtaining it that much harder.
Vimeo
Vimeo has established itself as the place to be if you’re wanting to share your art with the rest of the like-minded community. Users tend to prefer Vimeo in case they are looking for some high-quality content. This also might be because the fee for accounts with larger upload caps acts as a filter, stopping just about anyone from posting on Vimeo.
This makes Vimeo’s community quite the perfect place to obtain constructive criticism and gets noticed in the professional community. Many companies and brands also tend to prefer uploading their videos on Vimeo first and then to YouTube because of the stability the former offers.
Wrap up
Nothing can stop anyone from using both the sites, depending on the aims for each video. Probably a better idea would be to create a free account with both Vimeo and YouTube and experience both the platforms and see which best suits the aims of your business.
Still don’t have a dream home of your own? Want a rental property? “Oops, this is not in my budget!” Have such issues? Don’t know where to find the best place to stay? Suffering from selling issues? Chill! why do you worry?
Magicbricks is a platform that would help you find the best Real Estate Properties in India. To date, this is the best property site in India. As per the latest reports, 50% of people live in their own houses, 30% stay on rent, and 13% stay in their parents’ house in India. The new generation doesn’t want to tie down themselves with heavy loans. So, few opt for rent as well. Buying and selling both are very easy to do jobs here. Want to know more right? Read the magickbricks success story below
Magicbricks is an online platform for both property buyers and sellers. The company is a division of Times Internet Limited. It’s a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. It also provides all sorts of source information about all the property related issues. Apart from this, There is a news section called Property Pulse which includes property news, home loans concerns, legal and taxation issues, expert opinion and analysis of the property trends.
Magicbricks – Founder And Team
Sudhir Pai is the founder and the CEO of MagicBricks. Before that, he was the head of the sales department at Times Group. He was also the Corporate Manager at Citibank. He has also served Hindustan Lever Limited and Marico Ltd as the Area Sales Manager.
Sudhir Pai, Founder and CEO at MagicBricks
He started his career from Wipro as the Technical Engineer. He pursued his education from Goa Engineering College. After that, he pursued an MBA in Marketing and Systems. From the Symbiosis Centre For Management and Human Resource Development.
Magicbricks – Business Model
Companies like Magicbricks, 99acre. They have got the same business model.
Their source of revenue includes charges for listing a particular property. This way is better than free listing.
MagicBricks charges the person advertising an amount for a premium listing of the advertisement for particular products.
There are various properties at MagicBricks. For them, they highlight the properties with different colours.
The company provides very good locality information with the actual locality photographs.
“Advertisements” is a very common word. Everybody has come through it once, twice, thrice or more than that. It collects money from the banners as well. Of course, it’s an online portal. It also collects money from the searches made. It provides a hell lot of facilities to its users. Details are already mentioned above. It also provides a feature. It is the luxury section of the website. Personalized services like the Vaastu, Astrology is also involved within it. Hence people need not waste money after these aspects. And the company earns in this way.
Magicbricks – Tagline, Slogan And Logo
The tagline of the company is “Property Sahi Milegi Yahin”. This is the current one.
The logo of the company uses a white background. There is a lettering, ” magic bricks”. It’s written in small letters.
Magicbricks Logo
Magicbricks – Funding And Investors
Property listings website MagicBricks has raised a sum of Rs. 30 crores from its parent company Times Internet Ltd. This fund will be used by the company to brand building initiatives. Product development and seller development activities will take place soon. The company says that it sees itself playing a much greater role of a consumer. With this money, more efforts will be put on the platform. They are also aiming towards having almost 85% of all the available properties to be listed on their site.
Magicbricks – Growth
The company has grabbed many customer’s eyeballs towards it. The Real estate portal MagicBricks has reported 74% growth in the second quarter. The first quarter saw a 48% growth. But the second one is enormous as mentioned above. The mobile app has hit more than five million downloads. It has made itself the one and only in its category to achieve the milestone. The company is experiencing high growth day by day. This was much awaited. As in the last three years, there was a slowdown in the growth process.
The top competitors of the company are 99acres, HOUSING.com, and commonfloor.com
99acres is the top competitor of MagicBricks. Compared to MagicBricks the company generated less revenue. It is $11.3 million for 99acres.
Housing.com is the second competitor of MagicBricks. It is headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. This company generates 104% the revenue of MagicBricks.
Commonfloor is one of the top competitors of MagicBricks. It is a private company founded in 2007. It is headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. Compared to MagicBricks this company has fewer employees.
Magicbricks – Future Plan
The goal of the company is to bring a better workplace for its workers. With a major transformation. The workers occupy the maximum spaces. And the Senior Executives usually get glass cabins. But these things are going to change soon. Productivity would no longer be a mandatory issue. The company will be encouraging creativity a lot. Work styles and the workplace’s flexibility will be the fundamentals of the evolution. More technological things will be inserted into the app as well as the site.
As a developing country with the world’s second largest population, renewable energy plays a vital role in the economic development of our country. With the fossil fuel depleting and creating more pollution causing global warming and demand for energy increasing by the day creating electricity out of renewable sources has become extremely important as it is not exhaustible, clean and gives out green energy. These renewable energy sources and technologies have the power to provide solutions to the long standing energy problems that are faced by countries like India.
In order to meet the demand and ensure a sustainable future our country has been on a vigorous pursuit to research, develop and produce electricity by various applications such as wind, solar, geothermal and biomass energy. Making India one of the largest producer of electricity from renewable sources. This relentless journey in adopting responsible renewable energy techniques and taking a positive step towards carbon emissions has led India to become the fourth largest consumer of renewable energy.
India now has a strong manufacturing base in wind power with the total of 20 manufactures producing 53 different wind turbine models of international quality, exporting to the US and other European countries. As of March 2020, 35.86% of India’s installed electricity generation capacity is the result of renewable sources generating 21.225 of total utility electricity in the country.
India is the world’s biggest market for renewable energy auctions with the help of wind and solar project developers compete to offer the cheapest prices for zero carbon emissions.
It ranks the fifth in in solar power generation, fourth in wind energy and is also fifth in the overall capacity of renewal energy installed as of 2018.
In 2019, India installed 7.3 GW of solar power across the country while also establishing its rightful position as the third largest solar market in world.
The country also secures the second place in the global ranking by its policy thrust towards renewable and ever increasing investments in the clean energy sector.
As per April 2020, the renewable energy capacity stood at 87.26 GW (Gigawatts) out of which the wind and solar constituted 37.74GW and 34.81%, respectively.
With a potential capacity of 363GW and with policies focused on the renewable energy sector, Northern India is expected to become a hub for renewable energy in India.
Three of the top 5 largest solar parks worldwide are located in India, which includes the second largest solar park of the world at Kurnool. While the other known solar parks are Andhra Pradesh with the capacity of 1000 Megawatts (MW) and Bhadla Solar Park of Rajasthan which has the largest solar plant in the world producing 2255 MW.
The process of creating electricity through wind turbines.
According to the world wind report, India has the 4th largest installed wind power capacity in the world following China, USA and Germany. And is the second largest wind energy market in Asia with the capacity of 35 GW. Although a new comer compared to US and China, India has become a global player in wind energy with a strong domestic market. The performance and reliability of wind energy has achieved a tremendous growth from 1990 when the wind power first developed in India.
With the installation of wind turbines across the Indian subcontinent has led to some states such as Tamil nadu (7,269.50 MW), Maharashtra (4,100 MW), Gujarat (3,454.30 MW), Karnataka (2,318.20 MW), Rajasthan (2,784.90 MW), among others to have the highest potential of wind energy utilization. Tamil Nadu also has Muppandal wind farm which is the largest in India.The concept of wind farm became very popular with higher availabilities due to the development of wind turbine technology over the last decade.
In India the turbine technology is improving, and the highly efficient modern turbines produced with the help of foreign collaboration has more capacities more than 1MW. Recent studies also show that wind energy and be combined with the solar for the generation of self-sustainable renewable energy projects. While the peninsular country also has the advantage of installing offshore wind plants as it has 7,600 km of coast.
Solar Power
India has been blessed with rich solar energy due to its geographical location. It can generate enormous amounts electricity from this resource, making India rank no. 1 along with USA in terms of installed solar power generation capacity. The applications of solar energy is far more important than just producing Electricity as it also helps in the fields of telecommunications, battery charging, lighting, cooking and water heating.
Working model of solar energy
Today the installed capacity of 33 by 35 grid interactive solar photovoltaic power plant with an aggregate capacity of 2.5 MW generate around 2.5 million units of electricity per annually. Solar energy is the perfect alternative for conventional forms of energy especially in the case of domestic and industrial applications. The Thar Desert in state of Rajasthan has been known for their successful solar power projects which is sufficient to generate 700 to 2,100 GW making it the next generation powerhouse of India.
While the government also plays a major role in getting India to that platform by promoting the installation of new solar energy projects by giving tax incentives. In 2017, India unveiled its $19 billion plan to produce solar power by 2020 which was a part of the National Solar Mission. According to the plan, mandatory use of solar powered equipment and applications to be made by all Government buildings including Hotels and Hospital.
The country does not have an electrical grid, so one of the first applications of solar power was to pump water and replace the countries four to five million diesel powered water pumps, which consumed 3.5 KW each. Solar power in India has been growing at the rate of 113% at the price of 4.34 rupees per kWh, which is around 18% lower than the average price for electricity generated by coal fired plants.
India is famously known to be the pioneer in the establishment of hydroelectric power plants. It currently stands at the rank of 5th worldwide in terms of hydro potential as only 20% has been utilized so far. It is the most widely used renewable energy in India as electricity is generated in hydro power plants through the use of gravitational force of falling water.
The hydroelectricity is considered to be clean and renewable source of energy but it also known to have some bad effects in environment clearance in large pond areas. Over 21% of electric power consumed in India is generated by hydroelectric plants. While the public sector has 97% in this sector, India is blessed with abundant electricity because of its hydro potential of about 2,50,000 MW.
As of march 31st 2020, India installed utility scale hydroelectric capacity was 45,699MW or 125 of its total utility power generation capacity. The Hydro power project in Darjeeling and Shivanasamudra was established as early as 1898 making them one of a kind in Asia. The Nathpa Jhakri Hydro Power Station (NJHPS) of Himachal Pradesh is the largest power plant in India with the capacity of 1,530 MW.
Biomass
The process of Biomass
Biomass also defined as a renewable energy resource derived from the carbonaceous waste of various human and natural activities. This waste can be derived from a number of sources such as agricultural crops, raw material from forest, household waste, etc. Our country is known for its ideal environment for biomass production giving India a huge availability of resources because of its tropical location and abundant sunshine and rains.
The countries vast agricultural potential provides huge agro- residue which can be used to meet energy needs for heat and power applications. The Biomass material that can be used for power generation include rice, husk, straw, cotton stalk, coconut husks, saw dust, etc. There is also a high potential of biomass availability in the country at about 540 million tonnes per year which includes agro residue, firewood and other organic waste.
These kind of resources are mainly utilized by the villagers and rural areas of our country. India ranks the 2nd in utilization of Biomass and has the capacity to produce bagasse power of 2313.33 MW. Today the biomass sector has become essential and attracts an investment of $ 120 million while also providing vast number of employment opportunities in rural areas and generating an amount of 5000 million units of electricity every year.
For online businesses, it has become necessary to solve the queries of their customers to ensure consumer loyalty along with their brand establishment. Nearly 80% of businesses use a chatbot in one form or the other. But earlier what used to happen was that a man always sat on the answering machines waiting for the call and solve the queries of their customers. So, it was a cumbersome process. What chatbot has replaced now is a man looking for help from machines to remove the constraints of human limitations.
Since the time is the customer service industry which has been revolutionized, and the innovation responsible for this is the chatbot. Chatbots are considered the future of customer service and management.
Emirates increased their engagement rates by 87% after deploying chatbots.
What Are Chatbots?
Chatbots are those computer programs that can have real conversations with you with the help of chat interface, which allows real-time conversations with users. Chatbots are generally used with all of the popular messaging apps. The fun part is when you have conversations with them, they all seem real. For instance, Mark from XYZ company will help you out with FAQs and will direct you to the real seller and then he’ll call you back. Also, there’s no timing issue; if you open a website at 12 midnight, the bot is still ready to have a chat with you.
What is a Chatbot?
Chatbots can understand written and spoken text, and interpret its meaning. The bot can then look up relevant information and deliver it to the user. Most modern smartphone apps rely on chatbots to function. Chatbots have become an important part of business growth and the need for these AI-powered bots is only going to increase in the future.
Technologies Used In Chatbots
The cost and power of a chatbot depend on the technology it uses. There are two categories of chatbots –
1. Command Based Chatbots
As the name says, these types of chatbots rely on a databank of replies and heuristics. The bots reply by selecting an answer that matches the context of a query. Command based chatbots cannot create new texts. These chatbots can answer a set of limited questions so there is a need for manual help at the back-end for atypical questions asked. To answer a question, the chatbot has to understand it first. Command based chatbots use template search or dynamic search for understanding and answering questions.
One main limitation is that the command-based chatbot cannot perform functions outside its code, so what it lacks is the second technology.
Command-based and AI/ML-based chatbots
2. AI Based/ Machine Learning Chatbots
What the command-based chatbot can’t do, the AI/ ML-based chatbot can do it. It can answer all of the ambiguous questions of the user, meaning; you do not have to be specific when asking questions to these chatbots and no databank of replies. The chatbots create replies from scratch using natural language processing. These chatbots become smarter with time, learning from past questions and answers.
The star point, here could be: Both categories have their advantages and disadvantages. Command based chatbots can give more reliable and grammatically correct answers but fail to respond to questions outside their knowledge base. On the other hand, artificial/ machine learning chatbots need a vast amount of learning data and can struggle to form longer sentences.
If you are still wondering why you should get a chatbot for your business then we are going to give you seven different reasons why your business needs a chatbotright now.
Top 7 Reasons ‘Why Your Business Needs A Chatbot?’
1. You Want Your Business To Be Open
Keeping the business around the clock is difficult, especially for small and medium-sized businesses. This means when a customer reaches out to your business, they won’t get a response from you till business hours resume. What chatbot gives you is its incredible feature of time-boundness. There’s no timing issue; if you open a website at 12 of midnight, the bot is still ready to have a chat with you.
A chatbot can ensure that your business remains open all the time in one form or another. In fact, it can do more than just answer your customer’s questions. It can make reservations, ask about the menu, and give a plethora of different details about your business.
no timing issue; if you open a website at 12 of midnight, the bot is still ready to have a chat with you.
2. You Can Build Trust By Answering Questions
You know the drill when a small business gets on start then there’s not only one single established business. This means that the competition is always fierce and you need all the help you can get to stand out in the crowd.
When a customer has a query regarding your bran then it reaches out to you and then what they expect is an instant reply. This gives them the sense of, that the brand can be trusted and is always going to be with you in hard times. However, providing instant replies to all the questions can be outright impossible, especially for human agents. Chatbots, on the other hand, provide you with the ability to answer queries round the clock.
By adding frequently asked questions to the chatbot, your customers can search for the right answers anytime. This will build trust among your current and potential customers.
Chatbots are an automated solution that lets you handle your business handle easily with customer’s queries. Earlier what happened was, when the queries needed the real guidance then you have to book a meeting, so handling only a number of customers because a human agent can only attend two or three customers at the same time. This was the biggest limitation which businesses need not brag it until now when chatbots came into power.
However, if you use chatbots in addition to your human agents then your business can easily scale its operations without having to worry about the increasing number of customer chats and calls. Simply put, if you are looking forward to scaling your business then look into chatbots because chatbots helped scale India’s largest sports game by 30 times.
4. Right Products and Services to Customers
There will be times when your customers will need help figuring out the right product or service that fits their budget and requirements. This mostly happens when your customers are looking for something expensive to purchase or when they don’t have enough exposure to a particular product or domain.
Chatbots come in real handy when the customers aren’t sure what they are getting and whether it’s worth spending a big amount. Your Chatbot knows when your customers need help with their purchase decisions. The bots not only give an explanation regarding a particular product but also give recommendations based on prior queries from the user. Thinking practically, one could say that your chatbot loves your customers more than you.
5. Target Millennials
Millennials are not impulsive buyers. They like to inquire and compare products before they buy. They love chat channels more than any other form of customer contact services. So, if your product lines are aimed at Millennials, introducing chatbots in your customer service will be a prudent investment.
According to a survey, millennials prefer solving their issues on their own rather than reaching out to someone or a customer service agent. This exact point is why chatbots are needed and give this service to them can help your brand gain reviews.
6. Better User Interaction
Chatbots are capable of having conversations with customers like a human agent would. A funny instance that happened with me was, that I was reviewing some online coaching class, then a chat box popped up and from there Aksh helped me throughout the process. Here’s the fun part when I said it was nice talking to you and a sweet welcome came from there; then I had to ask if he was real. Oh No! He was a chatbot and I got fooled.
Coming back, they can keep your customers engaged in a specific platform by maintaining a conversation. When a web application is opened, the user is greeted by the chatbot in a non-intrusive manner. The user can then ask the chatbot specific questions regarding a product or a service. Most of the time, the user is provided with answers from the database, but in a structured manner that mimics human interaction. With each question, the bot also provides a list of options making it easy for the user to input the necessary query.
Most businesses come up with an app for their products, which customers have to download from play stores. Imagining the whole of this gives me like a lazy look, because whatever it is; it’s a cumbersome process. Looking from business point-of-view, apps are expensive and require a lot of time for development. And also, building an app and expecting them to download an extra app on their device for the query is going to get you only a handful of customers which is bad notice.
Here’s where you can implement chatbots on messengers, which is where most people spend their time. They are a better alternative to having an app. The chatbots are designed in a way that engages the customers who come in and makes them try the company’s products and services.
Things To Keep In Mind While Developing A Chatbot For Your Business
Keep personalization in mind. Your welcome screen should tell the user about the features of your bot. A user will feel more at home with your service if the bot is using his name for greeting and interaction.
Take care of the design of your chatbot because the user is going to trust a well-designed chatbot.
Use proper text-formatting, high-quality links, and high-resolution pictures in your bot replies.
Ask users for all the information you require, upfront, and take care of the conversation as well. Keep them connected to their mails.
Linking your chatbot with an NLP library can help in minimizing grammatical errors.
Readymade Chatbot Platforms You Can Use
Top 10 mot innovative chatbots in the world | Global Tech Council
In today’s competitive industry, customers are always looking for customized solutions. You need to satisfy your customer’s requirements and do it in a way that makes you stand out from the crowd. Chatbot scale up your operations. It does not suffer from the limitations of a human agent. Where live agents can handle only 2 to 3 conversations at a time, chatbots can operate without an upper limit. By employing chatbot solutions to complement your human task force, your business can get the boost it requires entering new markets.
The future will be heavily directed by Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies which prominently include chatbots. There’s a positive response to many chatbot benefits such as an increase in process efficiencies, decreased workload, and improved customer service, but it’s important that a measured approach is taken to implement these technologies.
The road to entrepreneurship is often a deceitful path filled with unexpected hindrance, roadblocks and complications. There are lot of sleepless nights, planning, consistency and funding that goes into being an Entrepreneur. Successful restaurant branding can make your eatery stand out. Yet despite all these hardships, everyone wants to be an entrepreneur but Entrepreneurship and taking risk is not everybody’s cup of tea.
Whether you’re opening your very first location or considering a rebranding effort, strong restaurant branding is more crucial to your bottom line than ever. Even if a restaurant has a recognizable logo or a catchy tagline, failure to understand what drives customers can create roadblocks to success. Restaurant marketing ideas and trends are not that easy to implement.
Strong restaurant branding efforts will affect everything from customer loyalty to your ability to expand into a regional or national franchise. And while how you target your customers might change over time, finding strategies to show your diners who you are as a company will help you stand out from the crowd for years to come.
Many young college graduates jump into an entrepreneurial world carrying an aim to make Millions, but they forget that they need to grind themselves for years to become a successful one.
As Entrepreneurship is not about being rich in a day instead it’s about building a solution from scratch.
One needs to have a certain mindset to be a successful Entrepreneur and most importantly “just be ready not to give-up”, the only golden rule of Entrepreneurship. It’s a proof that you do not need college degrees to make your business successful. Instead, you need a holistic approach to learning. Be a lifelong learner and learn from any source you can come across. Rather than trying to learn everything about everything, you should focus your efforts on a specific subject and become an expert in that domain.
With this dream which I used to see day and night, I started my journey quite early when I was just 21 years, it’s always better if you have a supportive family and an incessant attitude which keeps you going. I have seen so much and gained a lot in such a short span of time. While I decided to pursue the path of Entrepreneurship and took risk by starting my own venture, there were numerous challenges came in between but I followed my instinct and faith instead of choosing a comfortable job and constant income.
While I started my journey, I was all alone but in a short span of time, I have built a team of 20 young creative minds and together we are helping brands to recite their stories. We are with the brands from the very beginning and works on the minute details and work on the loopholes which is unseen and gets avoided by the owners.
When the food outlet/restaurant enters into the market or plans to expand, we come up as the consultants and work on the strategy of the launch and help the brands to expand in the market by using various strategies be it launch, events meet ups, social media or Public Relation. We provide 360 degree solutions and work on the strategic marketing, so our clients could get seamless start in the market.
We are perfecting our services every stretch of the inch and still evolving, the company now specializes in Marketing and PR handling for restaurants and hotels. I believe, “if any brand gets proper guidance it will significantly increase the brand recognition and will sustain in the market in the long run. The communication and engagement is entirely important and we play as the communication strategist or Image consultants for our clients.”
It is an extreme honour for us to be one of the most promising company, surviving in the restaurant industry. Though it has been immensely challenging yet with the strong thoughts and progressive mind we have successfully made our name in the Industry and we have created a milestone by making our client’s portfolio of 120+ in a year. We, at Square Fork, keep on implementing new strategies to ensure all the clients get maximum outcome from the services being provided by us.
Although most large organizations and startups focus on sales numbers (quantity) but we have a different take on things. Young entrepreneurs should go for quality rather than quantity. This word also reflects the line someone said, “Quality is much better than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.”
Give attention to detail, aim for perfection and deliver a quality product to your customers. Square Fork sums it up brilliantly as “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” When you manage to achieve this feat, sales numbers will increase automatically.
I believe as a young women entrepreneur, I could be some amount of an inspiration to all those youngsters who are timorous and apprehensive of trying. I would say, Everybody wants to be their own boss but to start your own business, you need a lot, one needs load of patience and persistence, with tenacious mind and soul and that different concept of business which makes you different at some point from the existing players in the market.
Never get tired of those umpteen trials but wait for that one success and I am telling you success will surely come to your way if you won’t give up. Do not be bothered by initial setbacks and learn from your mistakes. Be proactive when doing market research and see how future consumer needs are going to change and what kind of products will be required to fulfil those needs. If you can get do this accurately then you’ll definitely have an upper hand over your competitors.
” Take calculated risks to help your start up take giant leaps towards business success. Lastly, treat every day, as if it is your last because this will make your fearless.” -Shreya Sabharwal
Talking about Square Fork’s growth Shreya said – I have a clear vision of taking this business to an International level in next 5 years and we will expand our services to other industries as well as I have that strong faith in me and my team that we will be able to prosper into a bigger brand name in the forthcoming years.
Bill gates published a quote “content is king” in 1996. The appearance of digital time has made content writing important in marketing. Whether you want to sell products, improve your brand, create your presence online, and many more.
You already know the internet is a huge platform of information. This will be obvious to get forgotten in the crowd. A piece of content with the best-suited keywords can increase your reach.
Great and engaging content is the backbone of any online marketing strategy. This will help to connect you with new users. And further, try to convert them into loyal customers.
Therefore, if you aim to become a content writer in 2020. You will require a set of skills. This will help you to make this a better career option for you.
Below, I have given a list of the best content writing certification and courses.
content writing certifications & courses
1. How to Write Great Web Content – Better Search Rankings [Udemy] [Paid]
Google updates itself regularly to fix the blind spots. This is done for unethical webmasters to rank poor content at the top. Hence this is important to develop the best content to avoid being banned by Google. The purpose of writing SEO friendly content is to rank high on the result page.
Review for the course
This is an introductory Udemy content writing course. This is for anyone whether you are new or a professional to content writing. And want to rank high on google.
This course has:
4.5 hours of video on demand.
2 articles.
3 resources(downloadable).
Lifetime access.
Mobile and TV friendly.
Completion certificate.
Learning from this course:
Know the type of content that Google ranks in the top 10.
Analyze and how to make it better your content.
Where should you seek advice from google to know what Google wants? And also what they don’t know.
The endless idea for web content.
What is linkbait and why it’s important?
How to create optimized content for any website.
A basic checklist of SEO as you will create your content.
Quality checklist to make sure content is up to level.
This course is for:
Anyone interested in ranking their content on google.
Anyone who owns a website and want happy visitors.
Anyone who has lost their rankings.
This is not for anyone who wants to use loopholes, shortcut solutions to rank.
Skillshare is an online learning website. This has thousands of courses for users who want to learn using online videos.
Online creative writing classes
This is a free online creative writing course. This will help you to learn the very basics of content writing. This is beneficial for both beginners and professionals.
Key features of the course:
It has several courses that will help you learn the fundamentals of creative writing. And also how to write engaging openings and many more.
Some of the courses are focused on specific subjects. This will make your basics more strong.
This course offers a free trial for the first month. And the later fee is very low.
3. Ultimate Web Content Writing Masterclass + Power Words eBook [Udemy] [Paid]
Content writing requires a mix theory and practice at it. If you are a website owner, an entrepreneur, or a freelancer, want to learn content writing. Then this content writing masterclass is for you.
About Ultimate web content writing course
This course has:
4.5 hours of video on demand.
10 resources downloadable.
Mobile and TV friendly.
Assignments.
Completion certificate.
Learning from this course:
Difference between terms such as content writing, content marketing, and copy-writing.
Learn to write content for the home page of the website. Basics of the home page content will be covered.
Learn how to write content on the about us page.
You will get to learn how to write blog posts step by step.
Learn to write category pages for eCommerce and other types of business.
It will cover how to write attractive content that sells for business websites.
4. Good With Words: Writing And Editing Specialization [Coursera] [paid]
The best advice for students and professionals is to become good with words. Try to improve your effectiveness and embrace it.
This course targets the writing side. It includes arranging a complex set of information in a reader-friendly way. Also about giving and receiving high-quality feedback.
About- Writing & Editing
This is a beginner level content writing course. This will take approx 4 months to complete after investing 4 hours per week.
Courses under this specialization:
Course 1 – Writing and editing: word choice and word order.
Course 2 – Writing and editing: structure.
Course 3 – Writing and editing: drafting.
Course 4 – Writing and editing: revising.
Financial aid?
Yes, Coursera provides financial aid to people who can’t afford to pay the fee. Apply for financial aid by clicking the aid link beneath the “Enroll” button. You will be then prompted to a page to complete your application. You will be then notified for the approval.
Learning from the course:
Ways to use syntax.
How to add nuance to sentences and slogans.
Techniques to punctuate and paragraph like professionals.
Content marketing is a field that is expanding daily. This platform provides a series of 58 courses and training. This course various features such as social media, podcasting, newsletters, foundations, and more. There is a lot to learn about the levels of difficulties. At the end of the chosen program, you will work on relevant projects.
Content Marketing modules
Key features of the course:
All the topics are covered with well-designed content.
The instructor will let you work with fundamental features with help of examples.
Lots of opportunities to implement skills covered in lessons. Detailed instructions for work using the exercise files.
You will get to view lessons online and offline also.
This training is divided into assessment techniques and its tips.
The videos for exercise files and other materials can be accessed for free. This is for the first month of signing up on the site.
This is another option for a short content writing course. This course provides content writing certificates. This course is fit for people who wish to improve their writing skills to pursue a career. This is also suitable for start-up founders who wish to have an engaging website.
Learn content writing modules.
This course covers facts related to content writing. Tips and methods are there to improve your content. This course is present in a video format. This helps learners to grasp the content effectively.
7. Learning To Write For The Web [LinkedIn] [Paid]
The last course on this list is this LinkedIn course. This will assist you in writing effectively for any website. It is very essential to write content that is engaging, easy to understand, and delivers the details in lesser words.
About the author of this course
After completing this course, you will learn about the key differences in online and offline reading. And you should consider this while planning content for customers. There are 32 online videos to teach you.
Modules in this course:
Writing for fast reading.
Reading tone.
Creation of information-rich content.
Front-loading content.
Removing sales pitch(marketing jargon).
Detailed information and useful images.
Managing the information you publish(keeping updated).
Chris is a researcher and interaction design specialist. He is the founder of Chris Nodder Consulting LLC. It is a great user experience company. It helps organizations and startups to build products that customers love.
The field of online content writing is evolving. The demand for good content writers will continue to grow. As all businesses are investing to expand their online presence. Having good content on the websites is crucial for improving search engine rankings. So, this is very important for entrepreneurs and content developers to undertake these courses online.
I hope with the given list of online content writing courses. I was able to provide all the information to select the best content writing course.
You know what they say… Time is Money! And making the most out of your business is about maximizing the time you have. With just 24 hours in a day, you’re hopefully spending eight of them sleeping and taking time to enjoy the things you love but all too often, most entrepreneurs don’t know how to maximize the time they have for work, causing them to cut into time to rest and enjoy life.
When running an online business, you can work from anywhere, making it even more difficult to maximize your productivity due to various distractions. Everything from wanting to do a few loads of laundry to wanting to go sightseeing in Brazil, distractions can pop up at any moment but focusing on the big picture is one of the most important things to keep in mind to become a good entrepreneur.
Despite the distractions you’ll encounter, not all hope is lost. If you at least have the digital know-how to first and foremost make your own website, the aspects of productivity and efficiency will soon fall into place as you begin to run and operate your business.
Below, you’ll find some of the top ways to maximize the time you have within your 24-hour day running your e-commerce business. Take a look at how to make the most of your workdays.
Ways to Improve Your Productivity Running Your E-Commerce Business
Set Up Your Own Space and Hours
Many entrepreneurs may start working out of their own home or somewhere on the road. The first big step into being productive is having your own workspace. That could be a home office or even just a corner you have created for yourself in the living room. Whatever it is, whether you’re trying to be more productive in blog writing for your company blog or simply responding to emails, you need to be able to walk into that zone and be thinking “it’s time to work”.
Have your calendar and to-do list in front of you at all times. It’s a lot easier to remember your long-term and short-term goals when they’re staring you in the face.
Try to bring in some natural light or even add a plant or two to make the space as homey as possible. Put up a picture of your family or kids to bring it all together.
Set firm work hours and stick to them. You’re going to be more disciplined that way and maintain a better work-life balance in the process.
Using the Cloud
The cloud is that magical area in cyberspace that seems to hold all of the world’s secrets. In e-commerce, you can use the cloud to back up data, transactions, and other important information, saving you the time and hassle of using your own internal servers. It’s also the easiest option for collaboration among employees.
You can not only take something from the cloud and send it internally but it’s even more vital if you have employees or partners that are working at various locations. At the end of it all, the cloud is going to make your business much more efficient, secure, and it’ll save you money.
E-Commerce Automation
Investing in e-commerce automation tools is the ideal way to save you both time and money while growing your business. There are plenty of tools out there you can use to help automate plenty of those small tasks.
What are some of those small tasks that automation can be used for? Here is just a small list:
Notify customer service members of high-value customers
Schedule sales, price changes, promotions, etc.
Remove items that are out of stock
Send emails to team members notifying them of site issues, purchases, etc.
Notify members of any high-risk orders
Adjust site for certain promotions or product drops
While these tasks may seem small, doing them over and over again can waste time. Automation systems can remove these repetitive tasks from your team’s workload and ensure they use their time more efficiently.
AI Customer Service
Even though people are often frustrated by those automated voice messages over the phone, consumers respond more positively to customer service through the internet. Chatbots are how businesses are saving time and money, cutting back the need to have someone constantly monitoring all incoming traffic and responding to every inquiry.
Investing in an e-commerce chatbot comes with many benefits.
Chatbots should be one of the first lines of interaction a customer has with your website. They can help drive customer acquisition by easily directing a consumer to a page they are looking for and offer coupons or promotional ads. They can also be used to boost customer retention.
It can be hard to give that “personal” touch in a digital world, but personalizing a chatbot is one of the best ways to do so.
Using Omnichannel Marketing
“We all need to be on the same page” is one of those cliche business phrases that’s uttered hundreds of times every day. It’s a cliche for a reason as being on the same page is vital for any e-commerce business. One of those ways of staying on the same page is through omnichannel marketing.
When omnichannel marketing, you want to be promoting your products and services in tune through all channels. Your email campaign should be linking to your social media pages which should be talking about events that should be mentioning your mobile app or site.
Having all of these channels working together in one ad campaign is a way to save plenty of time. Instead of coming up with various marketing methods and tactics for each channel, having them all come together as one is a much more efficient strategy.
Supply Chain Management
At the end of the day, e-commerce is about making sure that products and services are being brought to the customer in an easy, manageable, and efficient way. It’s important for any business to have seamless supply chain management but it’s especially important for e-commerce businesses.
One of the ways to maximize efficiency is by eliminating multiple databases. Multiple databases are how your workers become bogged down in multiple tasks and add to the confusion, likely resulting in more hours and more delays.
If you’re a small business or just starting out, then this process is much easier. As you grow and start to add more members to your team, then it’s imperative that communication stays open and you can transmit data easily and in real-time.
The new corporate culture may sound plenty of options to you but the fact that the company usually grows when employees become progressively more competent and knowledgeable. While a lot of the learning happens outside training sessions, there is no denying the impact of a good training program.
With all the time and resources businesses allocate to training, it’s important to get it right the first time. If we say on an individual basis, the teaching concept may sound simple. But there are 7 big mistakes companies make when training their employees. The basic point here is, although it may take a whole new form and poses incredible challenges when organizations try to train their entire workforces, best practices and catastrophic methods of doing things may help you out.
People and businesses should grow together concurrently
Training mistakes can do more than translate incorrect information; they can de-motivate staff, set employees up for failure, and even put them at risk. These are 7 common mistakes companies usually make which may be a pit-hole for the company for upcoming ventures.
Training in Training Rooms is Obsolete
A few decades ago, classroom training sessions used to happen and since they are obsolete now, most modern companies design training programs. In today’s fast-paced work new methods of working are adopted like remote working. Employees need to travel a lot and have flexible work hours. Getting everyone together can take months of planning.
Basically, the cons of classroom training are that it takes the employees away from the desk and can be a major distraction when they are juggling deliverables. Training rooms are functional during induction training and group activities, but it’s impractical for every other training scenario.
Classroom training sessions have become obsolete now
The training programs carry the benefit of, accessing then anywhere from any device with login details. A quick webinar is also a great medium to get employees in different locations together when the training style needs to be a bit more conversational.
Just because Chandler knows how to code, doesn’t make him qualified to train. SMEs (Subject Matter Expert) should ideally coordinate with the course designer to tweak the training program. There full involvement in the program is not needed, just the guidance can work wonders.
Communicating and learning are only as good as the trainer keeps it going right. It may seem obvious, but choose the right individual to lead the process of training employees. Keep in mind the best teacher is not necessarily the person that’s best at the role themselves. One main drawback of SME training work is that it diverts the trainees from their core-work. And also, they have a little knowledge of training methodologies.
The trainer should be accessible to the trainee at all times. This means that the trainer needs to physically be around, and the trainer’s door needs to be open.
This is the most common mistake which most of the company tends to do, and then disaster happens because of a single mistake that the trainee does later. Most of the companies take this training as a one-time activity, which is typically at the beginning of a job when an employee is provided with the basics. But there’s much to be learned afterward also.
Organizations should shift their focus from offering one-time, job-specific training to providing all employees with ongoing learning and development opportunities. Companies benefit greatly from continuous learning programs, developing in-house experts who can better serve colleagues and customers while building their own knowledge and careers.
Forgetting “the WHY”
Most of the training programs keep on focussing on HOW employees should do their job. The how factor gets keep missing which is clearly important- a new employee needs to understand the nuts and bolts of their responsibilities, the tools they will use to do their job, and the expectations of the role.
The employee also needs to be trained on the why. Understanding “the why” gives them a deeper understanding of their role in the organization and what the organization is all about. It empowers them with problem-solving skills and allows them to evaluate processes and root out inefficiencies.
Training just for the sake of training is a bad idea. Employee training programs should be tagged to goals that are measurable in the workplace. For example, a fire safety training video should be followed up by a safety and compliance check and be scored.
Recycling on Conventional Methods of Learning and Technologies
The fact that training should be accessible and consistent always, doesn’t mean that recycling old training videos and scenarios that don’t reflect the work is one of the quickest ways to disengage learners. Quality of training often differs from trainer to trainer. For example, a webinar or classroom training is only as effective as the person conducting it. E-learning technologies solve this problem by empowering employees to train themselves.
Online training/ E- Learning
The great idea that can work here is that employees can directly go to an online portal to register for a course. These courses are interactive to keep the participants engaged. These courses also make use of animation and videos for maximum retention. After finishing each segment of a typical E-learning course, employees need to pass a test to move on to the next segment which checks the concept clearance.
The best part of E-learning is that employees can learn at their own pace. They can learn about a particular subject in chunks without having to download everything in one long session.
Top 3 HR mistakes companies make
It’s easy to ignore the human resources side of your business when things are flowing smoothly. After all, there are far more pressing concerns nagging us each day. Relations with employees can be enjoyable and fulfilling or time-consuming and terrifying, depending on the situation.
Being proactive in the area of HR, recognizing and rectifying HR mistakes before they become serious problems, can save you countless headaches and protect your business against costly legal claims.
“Selling is really about having conversations with people and helping improve their company or their life. If you look at it like that, selling is a very admirable thing to do.”- Lori Richardson
A salesperson is a professional whose role within a company is to sell the product or service that are provided to them. So, How to be a better salesperson?
In Nutshell, we can say that it involves looking for potential customers, promoting your product, assisting customers with complaints or inquiries related to products, services, and many many more activities.
To conduct so many duties, a salesperson must be equipped with several virtues to be able to work efficiently and breakthrough every task.A basic theory by David Mayer (as published in Harvard Business Review) is that a good salesperson must have at least two essential qualities: empathy and ego drive.
”Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, make me feel important.’ not only will you succeed in sales, but you will also succeed in life. – Mary Kay Ash
It is not very important to agree with the feelings of the customer; a great salesperson makes an empathetic connection with the customer to understand their state completely. It is a central quality to be able to sell him/her a product or service, which must possess an ample amount. Once you can touch the soul of the customer, you get the power to affect his/her mind too.
A salesperson simply cannot sell well without the invaluable and irreplaceable ability to get great feedback from the client through empathy.
The second of the essential qualities needed by a good salesperson is a particular kind of ego drive that makes him want and need to make the sale in a personal or selfish way, not solely for the money to be attained. Everyone aims to achieve big in life. And for that, you need to take small steps at first.
Each step covered act as a power booster to climb higher. His sentiments must be that he has to generate the sale; the customer is there to assist him in fulfilling his particular need. In effect, the deal—the conquest—provides a powerful means of enhancing his ego. His self-picture improves dramatically under subjugation and diminishes with failure.
While these are some natural qualities that can also growth time, effort and patience, we provide you with some practical tips to achieve the goals of being a better salesperson:
Tips to Being a Better Salesperson
Know Your Product
While many tricks in the past have worked for sales, the increasing access to information has made it tough for companies to befool people. Hence, it has become increasingly important to know your product in and out as much as you can before you make the pitch. Nothing is more off-putting for a buyer than to find an ignorant sales representative.
Know Your Product
Be an Active Listener
” We don’t learn from talking; we learn from listening.” It is human nature to wait for your turn to speak in any conversation, but a smart salesperson listens deeply for multiple reasons. Listening leads to forming stronger bonds and trust with the client.
Be an Active Listener
Also, the information contained in the conversation can help them position the product or service better to the customer in real-time. Such discussions can bring out some essential highlights which can be beneficial for future dealings. So, as Brian Tracy has stated,” Make a habit of dominating the listening, and let the prospect dominate the talking.”
Work Harder
There’s no such thing as a born salesperson. Great sales representatives make it look easy, but superior performance usually indicates that a salesperson has taken the time to hone their skills and is continuously iterating to help their prospects better. The efforts they give to make every sale gets undermined by the number of sales in the given period say in a month.
It is not easy to convince people all around because they find all kinds of heads, from easy-going to hard-hitting, from fickle-minded to hot-headed. Dealing with such a variety and being successful in it is a significant achievement in itself.
Follow Up
After the proposal is made, the client’s reply is much-awaited. But waiting in itself is not enough. Always remember,
” It’s not your customer’s job to remember you. It is your obligation and responsibility to make sure they don’t have a chance to forget you.” – Patricia Fripp.
Follow Up
A salesperson has to conduct some quick follow up calls or emails or both. Many a time, the sales rep don’t know if the client even opened their email. HubSpot Sales helps with this issue, letting salespeople know when and how often a prospect opened their email. With this information, they can follow up at the most optimal time.
Personalize Your Approach
To learn as much as you can about the prospective client and then using that information in your conversation with them can be useful in understanding the real pain-points people are facing at the time and help build their product up to suit the needs of the client. Mould your words enough to convince your client that your product will solve their problem or highlight that problem as well if the client was unaware of it.
”Approach each customer with the idea of helping him or her solve a problem or achieve a goal, not of selling a product or service.” – Brian Tracy
They’re Always Selling
As they leave the office, their selling practice goes beyond the hours, and they engage with the prospective clients at dinner, parties, social gatherings and even at a barbershop if the opportunity presents itself. Bottom Line: It is not a job anymore; it is a habit to sell.
Persistence is the key to unlock the bonus treats in the business. Being energetic, structured and resourceful is always needed. He/she must be able to handle time constraints while achieving the required goals.
Vidhi Punamiya
