Top 5 Ecommerce Courier Companies in India

If you want your customers to purchase from your online store again and again, there is one thing that you can never compromise on – your delivery service. If you make this process hassle-free, a huge queue of customers will start knocking at your online store. In fact, they might even consider switching from their usual brick-and-mortar shops to your online store. Wouldn’t that be great? Yes, it definitely will be.

But Which Service Provider Should I Hire From This Clutter?

Don’t worry. That’s why we are here to help you. Over the years, we have tried out various courier services. Some experiences were excellent whereas some were equivalent to banging our heads against the door. Nonetheless, to save you from all these troubles we underwent, we are providing you with a list of Top 5 Courier Service providers in India in this article that will help you improve your delivery service.

5. DTDC

DTDC was unfortunately our worst experience. Maybe that’s because it functions on a franchise model. It means that there is no umbrella organisation that controls the operations of any particular unit. All units function independently, and as a result have independent rates. The worst part of DTDC is that they charge a little higher than other private service providers and lack quality service. Untimely deliveries, loss of shipments are some of the problems we frequently faced.

·         Pick-up facility: 2.5/5

·         Rates: 2.5/5

·         Cash on Delivery: 3/5

·         Deliverable area: 2.5/5

·         Service: 2.5/5

·         Track Shipment: 3/5

·         Overall: 2.6/5

4. Aramex

If you are a beginner, Aramex will provide you one of the best logistics for your e-commerce store. They provide domestic as well as international services. However, irregularity, untimely deliveries, loss of goods, delay in settlement of COD accounts, etc. have been some of the frequently faced problems. Rates begin at Rs.21 per 500 grams.

·         Pick-up facility: 3/5

·         Rates: 3.5/5

·         Cash on Delivery: 3/5

·         Deliverable area: 3.5/5

·         Service: 2/5

·         Track Shipment: 2/5

·         Overall: 2.8/5

3. FedEx

FedEx is an American courier company which provides domestic as well as international courier services. They have limited area of operation; however, they do provide excellent service in the areas they operate. Their prices start at Rs.20 per 500 grams.

·         Pick-up facility: 3.5/5

·         Rates: 3/5

·         Cash on Delivery: 3/5

·         Deliverable area: 3/5

·         Service: 3.5/5

·         Track Shipment: 4/5

·         Overall: 3.3/5

2. Blue Dart

Blue Dart is a subsidiary of DHL. It provides one of the best courier services all over India. They have a wide geographical coverage as they serve 4000 pin codes in India. The only downside of Blue Dart is its cost which is one of the highest in this sector (starts with Rs.30 per 500grams). It is only due to this that Blue Dart has been pushed to number 2 in this list.

·         Pick-up facility: 3.5/5

·         Rates: 3/5

·         Cash on Delivery: 3.5/5

·         Deliverable area: 4/5

·         Service: 4/5

·         Track Shipment: 4/5

·         Overall: 3.25/5

1. India Post

On number 1 position, we surprisingly have India Post. In spite of being a non-private entity, India Post tops all other courier agencies due to its wide geographical coverage, excellent logistics and quality service. It is the best option for beginners as they provide free pick-up service for consignments weighing less than 35kg. Its standard rates are at par with private agencies; however, the quality of service it offers is much better than the rest.

·         Pick-up facility: 3.5/5

·         Rates: 3.5/5

·         Cash on Delivery: 3.5/5

·         Deliverable area: 4/5

·         Service: 4.5/5

·         Track Shipment: 4.5/5

·         Overall: 3.9/5

In conclusion, here is a chart to help you decide on which provider you want to go with.

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RSS Demands a Ban on Foreign E-Commerce Firms Operating in India

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is asking the government to put a ban on all foreign e-commerce firms such as Amazon, Flipkart and eBay, because they are killing the domestic players in the Indian market. And they have demanded a ban on Flipkart as it has a high infusion of foreign funds.

Earlier this month, leaders of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) met Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley for a discussion on the budget and have sought a white paper on FDI, as they are unhappy with the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policies of the NaMo government, as reported by The Indian Express.

Ashwani Mahajan, SJM national convener said, “We are of the opinion that FDI in e-commerce should be prohibited by law. Though we do not allow FDI in e-commerce sites, they circumvent the law to sell their product in the country. Even Indian e-commerce firms like Flipkart have turned to be foreign now with funding from outside. There is a lacuna in the law and this cannot be allowed. We have asked the Finance Minister to plug loopholes in the law.”

Indian Law allows FDI in marketplaces where sellers and buyers are linked directly, and not in inventory based e-commerce sites that sell products to customers directly. At present, the government has no data on the e-commerce industry. “This is more harmful than FDI in retail,” Ashwani Mahajan said.

In August 2014, Indian Commerce Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman had announced that the same rules for FDI, are same for retail and e-retail.

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Online SaaS Startup Refiral Secures USD 330K in Angel Funding

Delhi-headquartered, a SaaS-based marketing tool for online businesses, Refiral has secured USD 330,000 in angel round of funding. The round was led by IT service firm Cogent eServices. As part of the deal, both companies have entered into the strategic partnership and are together building a customer support-as-a-service tool for online businesses.

As per YourStory report, the company aims to utilized the raised funds to expand product development and sales team as well as to scale up business operations in India as well as international markets. Started in March 2014, as a venture of co-founders Anmol Batra and Rajat Goel, helps online businesses to boost sales.

Currently, it has partnerships and integration with around 20 e-commerce platforms and runs campaigns for over 250 online businesses in over 10 countries.

It is directly competing with ReferralCandy, which runs also referral campaigns for e-commerce stores.

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10 awesome features in WorldMart

Nowdays eCommerce has become huge and it’s replacing more and more traditional commerce. Ten, fifteen years ago doing commerce on the World Wide Web was restricted to the big players, Amazon and eBay and the really expensive scripts that were powering their websites. Making an eCommerce platform back then was insanely expensive and required teams of programmers and designers.

Needless to say things are considerably easier now. There are a number of ways you can create an online store.

If it were for me to make a classification there are two big categories of eCommerce platforms : the self-hosted ones and private-hosted ones. The private-hosted ones are platforms allowing you to sign up and run a store from their platform. They manage everything for you for a percent of each sale you make or for a monthly fee.

The second category is the self-hosted scripts, you can install on your server and run and manage with complete freedom. There are no monthly fees nor percentages to split. The catch is that most eCommerce scripts, except a few are not free, nor cheap and very difficult to Manage without Proper Team and Support.

I want to mention in this article a few words about the free ones and focus on one platform that is both free and very professional. As I said there are a number of free eCommerce platforms, some based on WordPress. These are WooCommerce, WP-Ecommerce, Cart66 and Jigoshop. While these are good, and do a great job for most basic stores, they’re not made specifically for eCommerce. They’re basically WordPress adaptations.

A professional and free solution for eCommerce is WorldMart. The main advantage is that this script is specially made for eCommerce and this is visible in every section and part of the e-shop built with it. Best of all, there’s a new version available, version 1.6. This version comes with a huge number of features and changes that make it even better than before.

We’ll try to go through the main features of this version and explain why WorldMart is one of the best eCommerce solutions you can have at this moment.

Well to start with, it simply looks awesome and modern. Take a look below at the preview and check out the design :

1. It’s Responsive

The ecommerce business is no longer limited to your computer or laptop. A good chunk of all ecommerce traffic comes from mobile phones and tablets. If you want to be successful, you need to have a website that can scale to any screen. This way you won’t be losing any customers.

WorldMart looks as awesome on a mobile phone as it does on a computer or a laptop.

The shopping experience is as simple and efficient on a tablet or phone as it is on any other device and this translates in higher conversions.

2. Awesome top section

It is widely known that the best portion of a website and the one that attracts the most clicks and thus possible conversions is the top section, the so called above the fold section, the part of the website the user sees first when entering the website, without doing any scrolling.

Having a good above the fold section makes your customers stay longer on your website and directs them to whatever you wish them to see.

WorldMart above the fold section makes it easy to display your latest sales and featured content through 2 image sections and 1 JQuery slider section. Besides that there’s a menu displaying the latest arrivals on your store, the most popular products and the best sellers. This way you can direct a new user to the best sections your website has to offer, an essential thing in terms of usability and user experience.

3. Footer section

The footer section is one of the best sections to display information about your store, offer newsletter subscriptions, social media links and include a secondary navigation. This way a user that might of missed something can access a certain section and thus make it stay more on your website. Also this makes it possible for the user to subscribe to your updates or to your social media feed if they liked your store.

4. Mega menu with included images

It is a prove fact that mega menus improve the user experience, not to mention they actually provide more information and content. WorldMa provides a good menu like this. You can include links, text and images easily.

5. Great shopping cart

The shopping cart is no longer a simple cart, just checkout and make the payment. There are a number of ways you can increase your sales, for example with suggestive cross selling. This means the script actually recommend additional products to add to the cart based on the current contents of your shopping cart.

6. Product Quick View

One of the most annoying things on any ecommerce website, or any showcase website for that matter is having to browse through products to see the details. You have to wait for the page to load, then go back, go through another page and so on. Worldmart improves this aspect also through quick view. You can view any product’s details without leaving the current page. This saves time for the user and makes him stay longer on your website.

7. Grid or list view

This is a must have option nowadays as some users prefer grid view and some prefer list view. Not to mention the list view provides quite a few more details than grid view. WorldMart offers this as standard.

8. The search

The search function is one of the most important functions of any website, especially ecommerce websites. Making sure the users finds what he/she is looking for is essential if you want to sell. Offering an advanced search function can mean the difference between selling a lot and not selling at all.

WorldMart offers an extensive search function. Each search can be refined by price, stock, reference, color and much more. Of course, the search results are available both in grid and list views.

9. Page layout

There are huge studies behind commerce in general. Why shouldn’t this be extended to ecommerce? The new WorldMart did all this for you and it has a very optimized page layout. When I say optimized I mean optimized from all points of view, especially from the sales point of view.

The new page layout is optimized for maximum conversion. This means it’s optimized for maximum sales. And that is great news for you.

10. Product reviews

I don’t know how you shop online, but I pay attention to what other people have to say about a product. Product reviews are very important for any store and thus, providing the best and easiest solution for users to add reviews is important.

The new WorldMart allows rich snippets in the reviews section. This makes it easier for customers to easily add good-looking and extensive reviews. The better the reviews look, the more efficient they’ll be and increase your conversions.

Conclusion

If you are looking for a solid, free ecommerce platform you can rely on, I would highly recommend taking a look at WorldMart.

How to choose a SEO wise domain name

When you’re looking for a domain name, you want to go for one that is easy to remember, easy to type and that gives an idea to the visitor on what your site is about. However, finding that perfect domain name is not an easy task. If you’re part of a very competitive business, you really have to put your creativity at work to come up with a top-notch domain name.

In SEO there are a lot of opinions on how important keywords are in a domain name. Ok, it’s important, but not vital. An optimised domain name is worth nothing if it’s not supported with unique content and quality backlinks.

Common questions

1.     How important are keywords in a domain name?

2.     If I include more keywords will I get more traffic?

3.     Should I use hyphens? How will these affect my domain?

4.     What’s the difference between .com and other domain extensions from a SEO point of view?

5.     If I add a suffix or a prefix to my main keyword, does it make it weaker?

I’ve tried to come up with some answers to clarify part of the existing misconceptions regarding SEO and domain names.

1. How important are keywords in a domain name?

The simple answer is yes, keywords are important. When you have strong keywords included in your domain name it helps you get some traffic to your site. On the other hand, don’t imagine you’ll get tens of visitors just because you have one or two good keywords in your domain name. You have to work hard to earn traffic, no matter what your domain name is called, so don’t make keywords the main factor in your decision-making process.

However, if you’re looking for a domain name with branding value, be as creative as you can and don’t worry too much about the keywords in your domain name. It’s better to choose an original name that will differentiate you from the keyword rich domain names available nowadays, rather than stuffing it with keywords for nothing. Go for a name that’s memorable and then put your marketing budget to good use to promote it heavily.

2. If I include more keywords will I get more traffic?

Photo by worldmart.in

Including more keywords does not guarantee more traffic. If you include more keywords you can get some traffic, however, it might as well work against you. People might consider your site spammy and just not visit it, so you can also lose traffic because of this.

Keywords in a domain name are not as important as those in your title tags and site content. If you’re not supporting your site with unique content that is optimised and with quality backlinks, then it’s worth nothing. Your domain name should reflect what your site is all about, and not be just a combination of keywords in an attempt to get traffic with little value.

3. Should I use hyphens? How will these affect my domain?

You can include hyphens; it really doesn’t make a big difference from an SEO point of view. Some people prefer to get a domain name with hyphens usually when the non-hyphenated version is no longer available. The main search engine – Google – does not differentiate between hyphenated and non-hyphenated domain names. You should mainly focus on the name and the keywords included.

If you choose a name that includes several words, you can use hyphens. This way you can make it easier to write and remember. As a general rule, try to avoid having a long domain name that includes more than three keywords separated by hyphens because it’s usually considered spammy and it’s also difficult to remember.

4. What’s the difference between .com and other domain extensions from a SEO point of view?

Photo by worldmart.in

Apart from the tech savvy, people are most familiar with the .com extension. If they’ve managed to remember your brands’ name, they’ll probably type in .com to enter your site. Dot com sites have this advantage and so it’s easier to get more traffic. If your desired domain name is not available for .com, then choose an alternative, such as .net, .org, .info. These are cheaper and you can still get traffic if you optimise your site content, although not as fast as you would on a dot com domain.

However, it also depends on your target audience. If you’re targeting the UK market for instance, it’s better to get a .co.uk domain.

5. If I add a suffix or a prefix to my main keyword, does it make it weaker?

Generally, if you include a non-keyword in a domain name it decreases the keyword density. You can include prefixes or suffixes but only if you really can’t find the domain name that you want.

You can use prefixes such as “my”, “your”, “buy” or suffixes like “online”, “blog”, “search”, etc. It’s usually recommended to use suffixes so you can place the keyword first and the suffix second. A good scenario would be for the keyword combined with the suffix to turn into a long tail keyword, such as “buy cars” or “buy used cars”.

Conclusion

When looking for a domain, try to find a combination that is memorable and easy to promote. If it also includes keywords, that’s an advantage. When you buy a hosting package, make sure you’re getting it from a reliable hosting company that can also provide the support you need. Once you’ve bought your domain name, your site should be ‘live’ at all times, 24/7.

How did you choose your domain name? Was including keywords your main focus?

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4 Tools You Should Use to Improve Your SEO

There my website sat, beautifully designed, all shiny and new, but it was alone. For weeks I had no visitors, and when I did a search for it on the web, it showed on the thirtieth page. So when I asked my friend if they had any clue as to why that was, they asked if my website was built with SEO in mind. All I did was shrug and ask him what SEO was;t urns out it meantSearch Engine Optimization.

SEO is the process of building a website with proper keywords in such a way that will allow a search engine to raise the visibility of your website through the engine’s natural algorithm. Optimizing a web page or entire website raises its prominence on a search engine, which will help give it a higher ranking. A higher ranking means you have more visitors, more visitors mean more potential customers, and more customers mean more sales, downloads, leads generated, exposure, what have you.

You can hire someone to handle the SEO of your website, but if you’re like me, you would probably rather do it yourself or get enough of an understanding before just hiring somone. So here is a rundown of four free tools that I use, and that anyone interested in handling, checking and maintaining the SEO of their own website(s), should also be using.

1. Market Samurai

Website : Market Samurai

Now this is a very valuable tool; the software has many different useful functions and is a jack of all trades. It has a keyword research ability which allows you to put in the keywords your website is based upon, then it will search and return various different types of keywords that you can use to have your website relate to.

Market Samurai also has another great tool called SEOCompetition, which will do a search for websites that compete with yours, and will give you info on their websites. This information can be helpful in raising your website above theirs in search engines, or just seeing how it compares in keyword richness.

In addition, the software also contains a domain tool which can help you find a great keyword rich domain name. You can also find products to promote on your website and publish content directly to your blog. And,Market Samurai allows you to keep track of your websites and their ranking on search engines.

2. Rank Checker

Website : Rank Checker

Rank checker is a simple browser tool which installs intoFirefox. This software checks your website rankings throughout all of Google, Yahoo Search and Microsoft’s Bing. You can put your website into the program, enter in a keyword relating to your website, and see where you rank in regards to that keyword throughout the various search engines. You can even set up a schedule when you want the program to check your website, allowing it to work while you’re away from the computer.

Another great feature of Rank Checker is that you can do multiple keyword searches, and then export it to a spreadsheet file to keep records of your website or the competition’s. This will help you with keeping track of how your keywords rank over time.

3. SEOmoz Toolbar

Website : SEOmoz Toolbar

I’m sure you’ve had other toolbars installed on your web browser, but this is a useful toolbar, I promise. SEOmoz Toolbar installs into Firefox and Chrome which works as you browse. When you load up a website, the toolbar will provide you with information such as Page and Domain Authority. These determine ranking strength and linking strength right off the bat. SEOmoz also provides a simple uncluttered SERP overlay of website metrics when looking at them through a search engine page.

The toolbar also has a wonderful feature called Analyze Page. When clicked on while viewing an actual website, a window will load and provide you with a plethora of useful SEO information. This information ranges from page ranking, to incoming and outgoing links, to the page source and keywords your website’s using. You can also export and save the data for your records.

4. SEOQuake

Website : SEOQuake

SEOQuake is another web browser toolbar that is helpful beyond measure. It provides different and useful overlay parameters for websites when searching through various search engines. You can find info such as page rank, which will show where the page ranks throughout the engine you are searching your page with. It also shows how many pages have been indexed. You can also view how many links there are on the Internet which point to a website.

Not only does it provide those features, but SEOQuakealso provides a quick link to the Alexa Rank for the web page. This will take you to the Alexa page giving you a traffic estimation of your website. Other useful tools that this software provides is a WhoIs link, which will link to the record of the current domain giving info such as who owns it, where it’s located, and even the IP address of a website.

It can also be used to check the current keyword density for a website. This is very helpful as you can make sure you have the proper percentage of keywords to fine tune your website for optimal search engine ranking.

SEOQuake also can be expanded, allowing you to install different plugins. These plugins increase the functions of the program which allow you to see info ranging from how many times Digg has indexed it, to even how many times your website has been linked through Googleblogs.

Conclusion

As appealing the design of a website is, it’s all useless if you don’t take care of the SEO workings under the hood. With the proper use of these tools, and all the helpful information you now have at your fingertips, your website should jump up in search engine rankings now. I hope you find these tools as useful as I have over the years.

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