19th of June — 2025

AI Agents in eCommerce

Aaron Shapiro

I n the fast-evolving world of eCommerce, customer expectations are rising—and businesses are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) agents to keep up.

These digital powerhouses do more than just answer FAQs; they create seamless, personalized experiences that help brands scale and shoppers buy with confidence. From product recommendations to intelligent chat support, AI agents are redefining how online retailers engage, convert, and retain customers in an increasingly competitive landscape.

What are AI Agents and Why are They Important to eCommerce

A primary benefit of AI agents lies in automation. AI can handle repetitive tasks—such as responding to FAQs, recommending relevant products, and processing orders—freeing up customer service teams to focus on more complex issues. This improves response times, reduces errors, and creates a more streamlined customer experience.

AI agents also play a critical role in customer engagement. They make shopping more interactive by guiding users through purchasing decisions, providing instant assistance, and personalizing each interaction. With AI-driven support, customers receive timely and relevant recommendations, keeping them engaged and reducing friction in the shopping journey.

For eCommerce businesses aiming to scale, AI agents are invaluable. They enable efficient, round-the-clock support and deliver a personalized shopping experience that encourages conversions and customer loyalty. Whether through chatbots, product configurators, or recommendation engines, AI agents are reshaping the future of customer service and sales in online retail.

The UX Benefits of Using AI in Product Configurators

As eCommerce continues to evolve, customer expectations for smooth, intuitive shopping experiences are higher than ever. AI-driven product configurators play a key role in meeting these expectations by providing personalized, real-time guidance and making the decision-making process simpler for users.

One of the biggest advantages of AI product configurators is their ability to offer tailored suggestions. Instead of customers manually sorting through endless options, AI dynamically adjusts product recommendations based on their preferences. For example, when shopping for custom-built electronics or personalized home goods, AI can present relevant choices in response to user input, ensuring customers feel supported in their journey.

AI also enhances user experience by enabling real-time interaction. When customers make adjustments to their selections, such as changing size, color, or features, AI responds instantly, updating the available options. This immediate feedback reduces friction and keeps users engaged, helping to maintain momentum in the shopping process.

Finally, AI product configurators simplify complex purchasing decisions. By breaking down intricate customization steps into manageable, guided choices, AI makes even the most detailed configurations feel straightforward. This combination of real-time feedback, personalization, and simplification creates a seamless user experience that meets the modern shopper’s demand for convenience.

robot hand selecting a person symbol out of many

How AI-Driven Product Configurators Increase Conversion Rates

One of the biggest challenges in eCommerce is keeping customers engaged and guiding them smoothly toward completing their purchases. AI-driven product configurators are powerful tools for increasing conversion rates by offering personalized experiences, reducing decision fatigue, and improving the overall shopping process.

AI configurators work by providing personalized product recommendations in real-time, helping customers find exactly what they need without overwhelming them with too many options. This level of customization makes the shopping experience more relevant and enjoyable, encouraging customers to move forward in the purchase process. For example, when browsing for a custom pair of shoes, an AI configurator can narrow down choices based on preferred size, style, and color—ensuring customers see only the products that fit their preferences.

Another way AI product configurators boost conversion rates is by reducing decision fatigue. When customers face too many choices or complex configurations, they often abandon their carts. AI eliminates this frustration by breaking down decisions into manageable steps, offering clear guidance along the way. Instead of feeling overwhelmed, customers feel confident in their choices, leading to a higher likelihood of completing the transaction.

Lastly, AI-driven product configurators enhance the overall shopping experience by speeding up the decision-making process. By automatically presenting the most relevant options, AI helps customers find what they’re looking for faster. This reduces friction, keeps customers engaged, and significantly lowers the risk of cart abandonment—key factors in improving conversion rates.

Related Data Sources

Customized Product Offerings Drive Conversions: A report from Deloitte highlighted that 36% of consumers express interest in purchasing personalized products, and 1 in 5 consumers who wanted personalization would be willing to pay a 20% premium . AI product configurators play a key role in offering personalized product variations, helping customers make confident purchase decisions and leading to higher conversion rates.

Conversational Commerce Boosts Engagement: According to a study by Capgemini, 70% of consumers who used conversational commerce (such as chatbots and voice assistants) reported high levels of satisfaction, and 40% of these consumers went on to make a purchase as a result of their interaction with an AI assistant . Product configurators using conversational AI fall under this umbrella, as they help guide the user to configure a product based on specific needs.
https://www.capgemini.com/us-en/resource/conversational-commerce-dti-report/

Product Configuration Reduces Abandonment: Research by Statista found that the average cart abandonment rate in eCommerce is 69.57%, but streamlined, interactive experiences like those provided by AI configurators help reduce this number. Customers who are able to easily customize and visualize products are more likely to complete their purchase instead of abandoning their cart.

The Platform-Agnostic Benefits of AI in eCommerce

Platform Flexibility and Easy Integration

One of AI’s major advantages is its platform-agnostic nature, meaning it can integrate seamlessly with different eCommerce systems—whether on Shopify, WooCommerce, or custom-built sites. This flexibility allows businesses to adopt AI tools without needing major technical overhauls, making it easier to start offering personalized experiences.

Benefits Across Multiple Industries

From fashion and electronics to home goods, AI product configurators provide industry-specific benefits. For example, fashion retailers can offer custom fit recommendations, while electronics stores can help customers configure products with specific technical features. This level of customization boosts customer satisfaction by helping them find exactly what they need.

Long-Term Business Value

AI configurators contribute to scalability and reduce human errors by automating tasks. As businesses grow, AI tools help streamline operations, ensuring consistent service quality and reducing bottlenecks. This operational efficiency not only saves time but also helps maintain customer loyalty by offering a smooth, reliable shopping experience.

AI-driven product configurators enhance eCommerce by providing seamless integration, industry-specific advantages, and long-term scalability. Businesses adopting AI see stronger customer relationships and improved operational performance across any platform they choose.

Preparing Your Business for AI-Driven Product Configuration

Data Collection and Organization

To power AI effectively, start by collecting and organizing high-quality product data. This includes details on product options, customer preferences, and historical sales data. Clean, structured data enables the AI to provide accurate recommendations and configurations, making the shopping experience more relevant and personalized for customers.

Selecting the Right AI Tools

Choose AI tools that fit your business needs and platform. Look for configurators compatible with your eCommerce system, whether Shopify, WooCommerce, or custom setups. Many AI solutions offer different levels of customization, so evaluate which features—such as dynamic pricing, real-time recommendations, or custom sizing—align best with your business goals.

Optimizing Infrastructure for AI

AI configurators require a robust infrastructure to operate efficiently. Assess your website’s load times, server capacity, and data processing speed to ensure it can handle real-time customer interactions. Investing in a scalable, cloud-based infrastructure will help your business manage increased demand as AI-driven configurators boost engagement and traffic.

Preparing for AI-driven product configuration involves strategic data management, tool selection, and infrastructure planning. With these foundations, businesses can successfully integrate AI, creating personalized shopping experiences that engage customers and drive growth.

Conclusion

AI agents are no longer a futuristic luxury—they’re essential tools for modern eCommerce success. By automating tasks, simplifying complex purchasing decisions, and delivering highly personalized experiences, AI-driven solutions like product configurators boost engagement, reduce cart abandonment, and increase conversions. Whether you’re selling sneakers or smart home devices, integrating AI across platforms positions your business to grow, scale, and thrive in a customer-first digital economy.

Request an AI eCommerce Strategy Call

6th of June — 2025

Common eCommerce Mistakes to Avoid

Honey Olesen

E commerce is developing, and companies must avoid costly errors to maintain an edge in this competitive industry.

The evolution of technology, changes in consumer behavior, and intense competition will require companies to stay focused.

The following are examples of the most ordinary business mistakes made by retailers.

1. Ignoring Mobile Optimization

Mobile commerce is the new way of shopping nowadays, and not optimizing your eCommerce website for mobile users is a big mistake. A mobile experience that is slow, non-responsive, or poorly designed will lose potential customers.

Solution:

Adopt a mobile-first design approach.
Improve page speed and reduce loading times.
Create a user-friendly navigation system and responsive design.
Test the mobile experience across different devices and screen sizes.

2. Poor Website Performance and Slow Load Times

Shoppers expect eCommerce sites to load within seconds. Slow websites lead to high bounce rates, lower conversions, and poor SEO rankings.

Woman holding her head looking at a laptop screen

Solution:

Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to improve speed.
Don’t use unnecessary scripts.
Find better hosting services wherever needed for optimal performance.
Lazy loading for images and videos will assist with optimization and performance.

3. Complicated Checkout Process

A lengthy & cumbersome checkout process also leads to higher cart abandonment rates. Consumers expect a purchase experience that is seamless and hassle-free.

Solution:

Provide a guest checkout option.
Reduce the number of stages in the checkout process.
Offer various payment methods like digital wallets and BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) options.
Be upfront about pricing, shipping costs, and estimated delivery times.

4. Lack of Personalization

Consumers expect personalized experiences based on their behavior, preferences, and purchase history. Providing a generic, non-personalized experience will result in a loss of sales.

Solution:

Implement AI-based product suggestion engines.
Run personalized email marketing campaigns.
Utilize customer analytics for personalized marketing.
Find and use chatbots and AI-powered customer support for personalized answers.

5. Weak Cybersecurity Measures

With increasing cyber threats, eCommerce businesses must prioritize security to protect customer data and earn their trust.

Person sitting in front of multiple screens with code.

Solution:

Secure your site with SSL encryption and reliable payment gateways.
Implement regular security audits and updates.
Require two-factor authentication (2FA) for customer accounts.
Provide education to help customers safely shop online.

6. Poor Customer Service

Customer expectations for support are higher than ever. Failing to provide timely and efficient customer service may result in negative reviews and lost sales.

Solution:

Provide 24/7 support through live chat and AI-powered chatbots.
Provide multiple communication channels (i.e., email, phone, social media).
Respond to customer inquiries and complaints promptly.
Include a FAQ and a self-help section.

7. Ignoring SEO Best Practices

SEO is still a vital component of eCommerce success. Without the right optimization, your store may not rank on search engines, costing you traffic and sales.

Solution:

Conduct keyword research and optimize product descriptions.
Implement schema markup for better search visibility.
Regularly update content and, when possible, create engaging blog posts.
Add descriptive alt text to images.

Social media is a great way to spread brand awareness, engage with your shoppers, and drive traffic to your eCommerce store. Not using social media marketing is a missed opportunity.

Person taking screen shot of custom bowl for ecommerce social media

Solution:

Develop a strong presence on platforms where your audience is active.
Use influencer marketing and collaborations.
Leverage social commerce features like Instagram and TikTok shopping.
Engage with your audience through interactive content (i.e., polls, live videos).

9. Overlooking User-Generated Content (UGC)

Consumers trust peer reviews and authentic content more than branded messages. Overlooking user-generated content can damage your reputation and impact your sales.

Solution:

Ask for reviews, testimonials, and user-generated photos/videos through post-purchase emails, social media, and incentives.
Showcase user-generated photos and testimonials.
Start a hashtag campaign to feature customer content on social media.
Provide incentives or rewards to encourage customers to share their experiences.

10. Not Leveraging Data Analytics

Failing to analyze data can result in a blind spot regarding crucial information such as customer behavior, product performance, and the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.

Solution:

Use tools like Google Analytics and Shopify Analytics to track performance.
Monitor customer behavior and purchasing trends.
Define key performance indicators (KPIs) for sales, conversion rates, customer retention, and marketing effectiveness to measure success.
Conduct A/B testing to optimize website and ad performance.

11. Neglecting Email Marketing

Email marketing remains one of the most effective channels for driving sales, yet many businesses underutilize it.

Solution:

Personalize emails by grouping customers based on behavior, purchase history, or engagement level to send relevant content.
Automate abandoned cart emails to recover lost sales.
Create automated workflows with welcome emails, abandoned cart reminders, post-purchase follow-ups, and re-engagement campaigns.
Incorporate engaging elements like GIFs and countdown timers to enhance interaction.

12. Ineffective Inventory Management

Running low on stock or having excess inventory can result in missed sales opportunities and higher expenses.

Solution:

Use inventory management software for up-to-the-minute tracking.
Look at past sales data to predict demand, especially during peak seasons, so you’re never over- or under-stocked.
Get automatic notifications when inventory runs low so you can restock before it’s too late.
Adopt Just-in-Time (JIT) Inventory – Minimize excess stock by ordering products only when needed, reducing storage costs and waste.

13. Lack of a Clear Return Policy

When customers are unsure about how to return a product, they may hesitate to make a purchase, fearing that they will be stuck with an item that doesn’t meet their needs. This can lead to abandoned shopping carts and lost sales, ultimately harming your business’s reputation and bottom line.

Woman holding a package with a cell phone chat asking How can I help you? Button for Return Policy.

Solution:

What is your return policy? Clearly outline the return policy on your website.
Simplify the return process by offering prepaid shipping labels.
Allow for various return options, such as store credit or exchanges.
Ensure that the policy aligns with customer expectations.

14. Ignoring Omnichannel Strategy

Consumers value a seamless shopping experience that is continuous across e-commerce sites, social media, and in-store locations.

Solution:

Bring together all of your sales channels for a seamless shopping experience.
Offer services like BOPIS (buy online, pick up in-store).
Unify channels to make your brand easily recognizable across all channels.
Use Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools to synchronize customer interactions.

15. Overlooking Sustainability and Ethical Practices

Consumers care about the environmental and social implications of their purchasing decisions. They seek products that meet their needs and align with their values regarding sustainability and ethical practices. Brands that neglect these aspects risk damaging their reputation and alienating a growing segment of conscientious consumers.

Solution:

Use Sustainable Packaging & Shipping – Reduce waste with eco-friendly materials and minimize carbon footprints in delivery.
Partner with suppliers who follow ethical standards.
Highlight eco-friendly initiatives in your marketing efforts.
Provide shipping options that minimize carbon emissions.

Conclusion

Businesses must learn not to make common eCommerce mistakes and must align with the latest trends to achieve eCommerce success. Mobile optimization, website performance, personalized experiences, cybersecurity, customer service, and data analytics improve customer satisfaction and lead companies to sustainable growth.

By avoiding these pitfalls, your eCommerce store can thrive in a fast-evolving digital landscape, positioning you well ahead of the game competitively, and growing a loyal customer base.

Need help with your eCommerce store?

See How We Can Help.

Moen

24th of March — 2025

The Best B2B eCommerce Platforms in 2025: Features, Comparisons & Weaknesses

Honey Olesen

B 2B eCommerce is quickly advancing as businesses search for solutions that ensure seamless buyer experiences, robust integration options, and expansion opportunities.

But no platform is perfect; each has its strengths and weaknesses. In this article, we compare the top B2B eCommerce platforms, sharing their key features, potential drawbacks, and best business uses.

Shopify Plus

Best for: Mid-to-enterprise-level businesses seeking an easy-to-use, scalable solution

Key Features:

✅ Custom Pricing & Quoting – Supports customer-specific pricing and RFQs.

✅Multi-Channel Selling – Connects with marketplaces like Amazon and eBay.

✅B2B-Specific Features – Custom catalogs, net payment terms, and bulk ordering.

✅Fast & Scalable – High-speed checkout and optimized performance for large orders.

Weaknesses:

❌ Limited Native B2B Functionality – Some B2B features require third-party apps.

❌Customization Constraints – Not as flexible as open-source solutions like Adobe Commerce.

❌Transaction Fees – Transaction fees can add up if not using Shopify Payments.

Who Should Use Shopify Plus?

It is best for growing B2B businesses that want a user-friendly, scalable solution, particularly those with DTC and B2B hybrid models (e.g., wholesale, fashion, and consumer goods brands). https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b

Choosing the Right B2B Apps for Your Shopify Store

If you’re on Shopify Plus, use Shopify’s native B2B features (curated catalogs, custom pricing, personalized storefronts, flexible payment terms, and a self-serve portal) and add apps for additional automation.
If you’re not on Shopify Plus, apps like Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B and Wholesale Gorilla can add wholesale capabilities without upgrading.
For high-volume B2B businesses, Allegro Order Management and Mechanic offer powerful automation and fulfillment solutions.

No matter your Shopify B2B strategy, these apps will help streamline operations, boost conversions, and enhance your wholesale customer experience.

BigCommerce B2B Edition

Best for: Mid-sized to large B2B companies needing flexibility and open APIs. https://www.bigcommerce.com/solutions/b2b-ecommerce-platform/

Key Features:

✅ Headless Commerce Capabilities – Enables advanced front-end customization.

✅B2B Buyer Features – Custom price lists, volume discounts, and account-based pricing.

✅Seamless ERP & CRM Integrations – Works with NetSuite, Salesforce, and Microsoft Dynamics.

✅Optimized Checkout – Shared shopping lists and quick reorders for bulk buyers.

Weaknesses:

❌ Steeper Learning Curve – More complex to set up and manage than Shopify.

❌Fewer Native B2B Features – Requires third-party apps for advanced workflows.

❌Limited B2B Marketplace Functionality – Not as strong for businesses running multi-vendor marketplaces.

Who Should Use BigCommerce?

Great for B2B companies looking for API-driven, flexible solutions, especially manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors.

Choosing the Right B2B Apps for Your BigCommerce Store

BigCommerce acquired the BundleB2B technology, making it a core part of their platform for B2B businesses.
For quotes & pricing flexibility, B2B Ninja and Wholesale Pricing help manage RFQs and custom pricing.
For automation & ERP sync, Brightpearl, NetSuite Connector, and QuickBooks Connector streamline operations.
For advanced shipping, ShipperHQ and EasyPost handle freight and multi-carrier management.

By leveraging the right mix of these apps, your BigCommerce B2B store can deliver a seamless experience for bulk buyers while automating operations for efficiency.

Optimizely B2B Commerce (Configured Commerce)

Best for: Specifically crafted for manufacturers and distributors, the platform inherently supports complex B2B processes, including intricate pricing structures and product configurations. https://www.optimizely.com/products/configured-commerce/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Key Features:

✅ AI-Powered Personalization – Uses buyer behavior to recommend products.

✅Deep ERP Integrations – Works seamlessly with SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, and others.

✅Self-Service Portals – Buyers can easily track orders, access special pricing, and reorder.

✅Strong Content & Commerce Integration – Merges CMS with eCommerce for personalized experiences. Extensive features mean less need for additional extensions.

Weaknesses:

❌ High Implementation Costs – While offering extensive features, the associated costs, including licensing, implementation, and maintenance, can be substantial, potentially impacting the overall return on investment.

❌Complexity – The extensive feature set and customization options can lead to a steep learning curve for new users, necessitating comprehensive training and onboarding.

❌Not Ideal for Smaller Businesses – Built for enterprises, which makes it overkill for SMBs.

warehouse laptop on desk with configured commerce by optimizely on screen

Who Should Use Optimizely B2B Commerce?

Best for large-scale enterprises in industrial manufacturing, distribution, and high-volume B2B sales.

Key Factors Influencing Costs

Determining the costs for Optimizely B2B Commerce can be challenging. Cost varies based on business size and requirements, integrations, and specific requirements. Understanding the components influencing implementation costs can provide a clearer picture.

Business Size and Requirements:
- Scale of Operations: Larger enterprises with extensive product catalogs and complex customer profiles may incur higher costs.
- Customization Needs: There will be increased costs for businesses requiring unique functionalities or integrations beyond standard features.
Implementation Cost:
- Optimizely does not provide default installation services, necessitating the engagement of web developers or third-party CMS experts for setup and customization. Collaborating with experienced implementation partners ensures that the platform aligns with unique business requirements, though this can add to the initial investment.
Integration with Existing Systems:
- Seamlessly connecting Optimizely with current systems—such as ERP, CRM, and PIM—is crucial for operational efficiency. The complexity and cost of these integrations depend on the compatibility and customization needs of the existing infrastructure.
Licensing and Hosting:
- Optimizely Configured Commerce can be considered expensive, especially for businesses with high traffic volumes or complex needs, as the cost is based mainly on your website traffic and the features you utilize, with potential price points reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, depending on your specific requirements.

Adobe Commerce (Magento)

Best for: Large enterprises needing high customization and omnichannel capabilities. https://business.adobe.com/products/magento/b2b-commerce-optimization.html

Key Features:

✅ Highly Customizable – Open-source flexibility for tailored B2B experiences.

✅B2B-Specific Features – Includes account hierarchies, requisition lists, and contract-based pricing.

✅Multi-Store & Multi-Language Support – Ideal for global B2B brands.

✅Strong Marketplace for Extensions – Thousands of third-party integrations available.

Weaknesses:

❌ High Development Costs – Requires a development team or agency to maintain.

❌Performance Optimization Needed – Can be slow if not correctly optimized.

❌Longer Time to Market – Launching is significantly longer than SaaS options.

Who Should Use Adobe Commerce?

It is ideal for enterprises that require deep customization, global scalability, and a powerful eCommerce engine, particularly in industries like industrial manufacturing, automotive, and wholesale.

Are Adobe Commerce Costs More Than SaaS Platforms?

When evaluating the costs associated with Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento) for B2B operations, it’s essential to consider licensing and optimization expenses. Adobe Commerce offers two primary deployment options: On-Premise and Cloud (Adobe Commerce Cloud), each with distinct cost structures.

Adobe Commerce Licensing Costs:
- On-premise: Licensing fees start at approximately $22,000 per year, and the total cost is influenced by factors such as Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) and desired features.
- Cloud (Adobe Commerce Cloud): Licensing fees begin at around $125,000 per year and include hosting and basic support.
Optimization and Implementation Costs:
- Beyond licensing, additional costs are required for implementation, customization, and ongoing optimization.Implementation: Depending on project complexity, initial setup costs can range from $50,000 to $250,000.
- Customization and Development: Tailoring the platform to meet specific business needs may require additional costs on development and third-party integrations.

Adobe Commerce offers robust B2B functionalities with substantial customization potential, but this flexibility often comes with higher licensing and optimization costs than other SaaS B2B platforms. Careful assessment of your organization’s needs and resources is crucial in determining the most cost-effective and suitable platform.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud (Feature: B2B Commerce)

Best for: Enterprises prioritizing CRM-driven eCommerce and sales automation

Key Features:

✅ Seamless Salesforce Integration – Perfect for businesses already using Salesforce.

✅AI-Powered Personalization – Uses Einstein AI for product recommendations.

✅Multi-Tenant Cloud Infrastructure – Ensures scalability and high performance.

✅B2B-Specific Workflows – Includes contract pricing, purchase approvals, and recurring orders.

Weaknesses:

❌ Expensive Licensing Fees – One of the most costly platforms on the market.

❌Complex Setup & Configuration – Requires expert implementation and ongoing management.

❌Best for Salesforce Users – Businesses not using Salesforce CRM may find limited value.

Who Should Use Salesforce Commerce Cloud?

It is great for large enterprises in tech, healthcare, and financial services that rely on Salesforce for CRM and sales automation.

Cost Considerations Compared to Other Platforms:

While SFCC offers a rich feature set, its cost structure may be higher than other eCommerce platforms. Take your business’s specific needs and objectives into consideration before deciding to invest in SFCC.

Integration Needs: If your business relies heavily on Salesforce’s suite of products, the seamless integration offered for SFCC could justify the cost.
Growth Projections: Plan on growing quickly or need the ability to scale? Then SFCC’s infrastructure is what you need since it is designed to accommodate expansion.
Resource Availability: Assess whether your organization has the technical and financial resources to maximize the benefits of SFCC’s advanced features.

OroCommerce

Best for: Mid-sized to large businesses needing a highly flexible, B2B-first solution. https://oroinc.com/b2b-ecommerce/

Key Features:

✅ B2B-Exclusive Platform – Built specifically for B2B, with RFQs, bulk ordering, and customer-specific pricing.

✅Headless Commerce Ready – Provides flexibility for API-driven commerce.

✅Built-in B2B CRM – Includes a customer relationship management system for sales teams.

✅Flexible Deployment Options – Offers both cloud-based and on-premise solutions.

Weaknesses:

❌ Less User-Friendly – Requires technical expertise to set up and manage.

❌Smaller App Ecosystem – Fewer third-party extensions compared to Adobe Commerce or Shopify.

❌Not Ideal for Hybrid B2B/DTC Models – Built primarily for B2B, with fewer features for DTC selling.

woman on laptop with an orocommerce screen in the bottom left of the image

Who Should Use OroCommerce?

Great for manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors needing a B2B-first platform with strong customization capabilities.

Built Specifically for B2B eCommerce

Unlike many platforms that adapt B2C solutions for B2B, OroCommerce was built from the ground up for B2B transactions. It natively supports custom pricing and contracts, RFQ (Request for Quote) management, multi-warehouse and inventory control, flexible B2B workflows, and multi-channel sales.

Many B2B businesses struggle to fit their complex workflows into platforms primarily designed for B2C. OroCommerce eliminates the need for extensive customizations to make B2B work.

Which B2B eCommerce Platform is Right for Your Business?

Platform	Best For	Key Strengths	Ideal Industries
Shopify Plus	Growing B2B & hybrid businesses	Easy-to-use, scalable, fast	Wholesale, fashion, consumer goods
BigCommerce B2B	Mid-to-large businesses	Open APIs, headless commerce	Manufacturing, distribution
Optimizely B2B	Enterprise businesses	Advanced personalization, ERP integration	Industrial, high-volume B2B
Adobe Commerce	Large enterprises	Highly customizable, global commerce	Automotive, industrial
Salesforce Commerce	CRM-driven enterprises	AI-powered, deep CRM integration	Tech, healthcare, financial services
OroCommerce	B2B-first companies	Built for B2B, flexible deployment	Manufacturing, wholesale

Final Thoughts

Selecting the best B2B eCommerce platform depends on your business size, technical resources, and sales model. Shopify Plus is a great option for user-friendly scalability. For flexibility, BigCommerce B2B and OroCommerce stand out. If deep customization is needed, Adobe Commerce or Optimizely are strong choices, while Salesforce Commerce Cloud is best for businesses already using Salesforce.

The right platform will help streamline operations, enhance customer experience, and drive revenue. Ready to choose your B2B eCommerce solution? Evaluate your needs, test platforms, and invest in a future-proof system.

Need Help Selecting the Right B2B Platform?

Let’s Chat!

15th of November — 2024

Unlock Seamless Ecommerce with Shopify and Optimizely

Jayme Rey

A re you a Shopify customer looking for a way to enhance your online store's functionality with a world-class content management system? BlueBolt and Optimizely offer an ideal solution.

By combining Shopify’s powerful ecommerce capabilities with Optimizely’s best-in-class CMS, BlueBolt has built a seamless, integrated experience that optimizes both sales performance and customer engagement.

Why This Integration Matters

This integration bridges the gap between content management and ecommerce, allowing businesses to boost sales by providing a better, more cohesive customer experience. By uniting Shopify’s robust product catalog management with Optimizely’s flexible content tools, marketing and ecommerce operations run smoother than ever. Here’s how:

1. Optimizely Experimentation for Continuous Improvement

Want to test new features or layouts? With Optimizely Experimentation, you can easily A/B test different experiences on your site, helping you refine your store to maximize conversions. Every new feature or page can be tested and optimized based on real-time customer feedback, ensuring your site evolves with the needs of your audience.

2. Drag-and-Drop Simplicity for Content Editors

One of the most powerful aspects of this integration is the ease with which content editors can work. Products in Shopify are treated as content within Optimizely, allowing editors to simply drag and drop product images or descriptions into pages or blog posts. No need for cumbersome linking—customers can purchase directly from the content they’re interacting with, be it a blog post or a product guide.

3. Unified Content and Product Catalog Management

With this solution, you manage your product catalog in Shopify while Optimizely handles your site’s frontend and marketing content. Whether you’re updating images, product descriptions, blog posts, or other marketing content, changes are synchronized in real-time. This means faster updates and a consistent experience for your customers, no matter where they interact with your products.

4. Industry-Leading Search Powered by Algolia

Customers will never have to struggle to find the products they need. The integration includes Algolia-driven search functionality, offering faceted search options based on Shopify metafields, including real-time inventory data. This ensures that customers get accurate, up-to-date product results that help them make purchasing decisions faster.

5. AI-Driven Marketing Tools

Marketers benefit from AI-powered tools that can automatically generate marketing copy, speeding up the process of getting new products online and ready for sale. Whether you’re launching a new product or running a seasonal promotion, the integration ensures that your marketing efforts are in sync with your catalog updates.

A Seamless Shopping Experience

For customers, the integration provides a smooth, cohesive experience. Even though product data is managed in Shopify, everything is presented beautifully on the front end through Optimizely. This means users can easily add items to their cart, manage their orders, and browse products, all without interruptions or inconsistencies in their shopping journey.

With Shopify’s ecommerce power and Optimizely’s intuitive CMS capabilities, you can take your ecommerce site to the next level—offering not just products but a fully integrated, engaging customer experience.

Ready to supercharge your Shopify store with Optimizely’s CMS? This powerful integration gives you a seamless way to manage both content and ecommerce in one place—driving faster growth and delivering a standout experience that will wow your customers.

28th of October — 2024

The Future of B2B in eCommerce: How Companies Can Thrive with a Winning Digital Strategy

Honey Olesen

T he future of B2B eCommerce is no longer a distant concept—it's unfolding before our eyes, reshaping how businesses connect, transact, and scale.

With digital transformation accelerating at breakneck speed, B2B companies must embrace a bold, tech-driven future to stay competitive.

The days of static catalogs and lengthy sales cycles are fading fast, replaced by AI-powered automation, seamless integration, and personalized experiences that rival even the most sophisticated B2C platforms. Those who adapt now will not just survive but thrive in this evolving landscape, setting the stage for a new era of business agility and customer-centric innovation.

In fact, global B2B eCommerce sales are expected to reach an astounding $25.65 trillion by 2028, up from $15.44 trillion in 2023. This explosive growth reflects a broader shift in the way businesses operate.

To stay ahead of the curve, B2B companies must adopt innovative digital strategies that meet evolving buyer expectations and streamline operations.

The Rise of Digital-First B2B Buying

B2B transactions used to be synonymous with lengthy sales cycles, lots of paperwork, and personal relationships. Today, however, the landscape has changed dramatically. A new generation of buyers—millennials and Gen Z—are entering the workforce, bringing with them different expectations. According to Forrester, 73% of B2B buyers now prefer to buy from websites, with most doing extensive online research before engaging with sales.

Moreover, the pandemic accelerated the shift to digital, pushing B2B companies to fast-track their eCommerce capabilities. Even as the world normalizes, there is no turning back. McKinsey reports that 65% of B2B companies across industries are fully digital, up from 53% before the pandemic. And buyers? They like it. A whopping 80% of B2B buyers now prefer remote and digital self-service over in-person interactions.

This shift has forced B2B companies to rethink how they engage with clients. What used to be a relationship-driven, face-to-face sales process has become an online-first engagement. So, what does this mean for B2B companies?

Key Trends Shaping the Future of B2B eCommerce

Personalization and Customer Experiences

In the B2C world, personalization is standard. In B2B, it’s quickly becoming an expectation. B2B buyers want personalized content, product recommendations, and dynamic pricing based on their previous purchases or browsing behavior. According to a study by Salesforce, 75% of B2B buyers expect companies to anticipate their needs and make relevant suggestions.

B2B personalization is typically more account-focused, tailoring experiences to specific companies or industries. This involves curating content, offers, and solutions that resonate with the pain points and goals of a particular business. B2B purchases are often large-scale and complex, requiring personalized pricing, product configurations, or custom solutions.

Generative AI in B2B

The last ten years have brought a wave of automation, data analytics, and machine learning tools for B2B sellers. More recently, we’ve seen companies consistently gain 10 to 15 percent efficiency improvements by leveraging technology (such as automation) for sales enablement.

Companies can finally showcase more of their collections digitally by leveraging generative AI. AI can reduce tasks such as maintaining massive volumes of technical but often incomplete and inaccurate product data (e.g., product descriptions, visual representations, or configurations).

Seamless Omnichannel Experiences

Buyers now expect a seamless experience across all channels. B2B buyers expect personalized experiences across multiple touchpoints, including email, website, sales outreach, and even in-person meetings.

Hybrid has become the default operating mode, representing 70 percent of the sales roles, followed by digital at 64 percent. Mixing the two and adjusting according to a customer’s needs should happen at each stage of the sales process. Companies that fail to integrate their online and offline channels risk losing customers to more agile competitors.

Self-Service Tools and Automation

Today’s B2B buyers prefer autonomy. According to Gartner, 77% of B2B buyers say their latest purchase was complex or difficult, but 44% of millennial B2B buyers prefer no interaction with a sales representative at all during their buying journey. Instead, they want digital self-service options, such as self-checkout portals, product configurators, and instant quote generators.

Automated systems, like chatbots and AI-powered customer service tools, can streamline the buyer’s journey, offering support without the need for human intervention. This reduces friction and speeds up the purchase process, leading to higher customer satisfaction.

Sustainability and Ethical Sourcing

As with their B2C counterparts, B2B buyers are increasingly concerned with sustainability and ethical sourcing. Businesses are more conscious than ever about their environmental impact, which is reflected in their purchasing decisions. A study by McKinsey found that 83% of B2B decision-makers consider sustainability a key factor in their purchasing decisions.

Companies that adopt green initiatives—whether eco-friendly packaging, carbon-neutral shipping, or ethically sourced products—can set themselves apart in a crowded market. Sustainability is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s a business imperative.

Subscription Models and Recurring Revenue

The B2B eCommerce space is seeing a rise in subscription-based models. B2B companies offering repeat services or consumables (e.g., office supplies, manufacturing parts, software) are adopting subscription models to ensure predictable revenue streams. Subscriptions offer convenience for buyers, while for sellers, they provide more predictable cash flow and opportunities for upselling and cross-selling.

Software as a service (SaaS) is the subscription-based licensing of software. It has become an almost textbook example of what a B2B subscription-based business model may look like. Using this service-driven model, users connect with the programs through a cloud network (as opposed to downloading them on their desktops).

An obvious SaaS product is Microsoft 365. Users can subscribe to multiple apps, including Outlook, Word, and Excel, for a monthly fee. This benefits customers because buying all of those individual apps can cost thousands of dollars. Subscribers also get real-time updates and feature upgrades.

Today, there are five common SaaS business structures:

Flat Rate: A single product and its features are sold at a set price.
Usage-Based: You pay more the more you use it.
Variable pricing: Businesses offer a few different packages with various features and price points.
Per User Pricing: Based on how many people are using the software
Per Feature Pricing: Users are charged more based on the features they use.

Developing a Winning B2B eCommerce Strategy

With these items in mind, how can B2B companies position themselves for success in the ever-evolving eCommerce landscape? Here are actionable steps to help your business thrive.

Invest in Personalization and AI Tools

Leveraging AI-powered tools can help you gather and analyze data on your buyers’ preferences, purchase history, and online behaviors. AI can help automate personalized experiences at scale, giving each buyer content tailored to their unique needs and preferences.

For example, tools like Dynamic Yield or Salesforce’s Einstein AI allow companies to segment their audience and deliver highly personalized experiences in real-time.

Optimize for Mobile and Seamless Experiences

The majority of B2B buyers use mobile devices to conduct research or make purchases. Still, many B2B websites are not optimized for mobile browsing. In 2024, more than 70% of B2B searches will take place on mobile devices. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you’re missing out on a huge segment of potential buyers.

Beyond mobile optimization, companies need to focus on providing a seamless experience across devices and channels. Buyers should be able to start a transaction on their mobile phone and finish it on their desktop without interruptions.

Implement Self-Service Capabilities

B2B buyers are increasingly looking for self-service options, which means your website should offer tools that allow users to complete the buying process without needing a sales rep. This can include:

Instant Quoting Tools: Allow buyers to get real-time quotes based on their specific requirements.
Chatbots: Use AI-powered chatbots to answer FAQs and guide users through the buying process.
Account Management Portals: Let customers independently manage their orders, invoices, and subscriptions.

Self-service makes it easier for buyers and reduces the burden on your sales team, allowing them to focus on high-value customers or complex transactions.

Focus on Data-Driven Decision Making

Data is the cornerstone of a successful digital strategy. By leveraging the data you collect from your eCommerce platform, CRM, and marketing automation tools, you can gain valuable insights into your buyers’ preferences and behaviors. These insights should inform every decision, from what products to promote to which channels to prioritize and how to personalize customer experiences.

Companies using data-driven decision-making are 23 times more likely to acquire customers and 19 times more likely to be profitable. Investing in the right analytics tools and platforms will be crucial to maintaining a competitive edge.

Embrace Sustainability Initiatives

Sustainability is not just a consumer trend—it’s permeating the B2B space as well. Businesses are under increasing pressure to reduce their environmental footprint and work with partners who prioritize sustainability. To stay competitive, B2B companies should integrate sustainable practices into their operations, such as using eco-friendly packaging, adopting carbon-neutral shipping options, and selecting ethical suppliers.

Highlighting your sustainability efforts in your marketing materials, website, and product descriptions can differentiate your brand and appeal to eco-conscious buyers.

Conclusion

B2B eCommerce is poised for a bright future filled with opportunities that require daring innovation. As buyers increasingly seek digital, personalized, and sustainable experiences, companies responding to these demands will pave the path. Those who quickly adapt will flourish in this fast-evolving landscape.

19th of September — 2024

How to Implement an Omnichannel Strategy with Shopify

Honey Olesen

O ver the last decade, retail has progressed significantly, and customers now demand an integrated online shopping experience. Consumers today no longer have to be tethered to a single device or place when they engage with brands — browsing products on their phone, exploring an in-store display, and socially engaging.

An omnichannel strategy is ideal and necessary for businesses attempting to remain competitive in this increasingly complex environment. Shopify, known for its robust eCommerce platform, offers the perfect ecosystem to create and manage an omnichannel experience.

What is Omnichannel Strategy

But first, let’s establish what constitutes an omnichannel strategy.

Omnichannel strategy: This means providing a seamless customer experience across all touchpoints—online, on social media, or in your brick-and-mortar store. Set a standard that your customers should feel the same grade of service or brand awareness when they shop through the website, on Facebook, or at your local shop.

It is also common to mistake Omnichannel for multichain; however, they are different from each other. A multichannel strategy involves selling through multiple channels, but those channels may not be connected. For example, your online store may have different inventory or prices than your physical store. Conversely, an omnichannel strategy means that all sales and customer touchpoints are linked, making the experience transparent.

Know your customer journey

So, even before you use Shopify’s numerous tools to help attract customers, map out your customer journey across many channels. To employ an efficient omnichannel strategy with Shopify, you should understand how your customers interact with your brand across multiple channels. The customer journey is business-specific and varies depending on your vertical / target market and sales channels.

Once you learn how your customers interact through the sales funnel, it becomes easier to create an integrated experience across all channels. For instance, if you learn that your customers usually find out about your brand via social media but favor purchasing in-store over online shopping, make sure to focus on both channels and align them together.

Put Shopify POS to Use for Blended In-Store and Online

For those of you with a brick & mortar, Shopify has an incredibly robust Point of Sale (POS) system. It brings your online and offline operations together. This includes sync of inventory, sales, and customer data, allowing services like “buy online pick up in-store” or “browse in-store ship to home.” From your customer’s perspective, it is all one brand experience regardless of the channel.

Key Benefits of Shopify POS:

Inventory Management: Shopify POS keeps inventory always up-to-date, regardless of whether a customer buys an item online or in-store. With this feature in place, you should never oversell, and customers can see the real-time availability of products.

In-store Customer Profiles with Purchase History: Shopify POS allows staff to easily access detailed customer profiles, including purchasing history and preferences. This allows tailored suggestions so that shoppers obtain exactly what they are looking for while feeling special both online and in-store.

More Fulfillment Options: Branch out into “buy online, pick up in-store” (BOPIS), ‘ship from store’ or ‘reserve in-store,’ etc., with Shopify POS features that all sync seamlessly. One of the reasons this resonates with customers is that having more and owning it gives them the power to, for instance, research products online before they trot out to a physical store to pay up.

Unify Your Sales Channels

With Shopify, you can sell on multiple online channels, such as your website, Facebook, and Instagram Shops. You can also control inventory, pricing, and orders for all these platforms from one place through the Shopify dashboard. This provides a seamless experience so your customers can view the same product details, prices, and promotions from anywhere in the world or on any channel!

Beyond social media, Shopify allows you to integrate with major online marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Walmart. These platforms have millions of active users; tapping into these audiences can significantly boost sales.

Utilizing Shopify Flow for Automation

Omnichannel operations are complex. Shopify Flow is an event-based feature that lets you create automated workflows. These automations help eliminate manual work, reduce errors, and free up time to focus on higher-level tasks like marketing and strategy.

For example, you can set up workflows to:

Automatically notify staff when inventory falls below a certain threshold.
Tag and segment customers based on their buying behavior (e.g., first-time buyers, repeat customers).
Trigger personalized email campaigns when customers abandon their cart or complete a purchase.

Automation ensures that every part of your omnichannel strategy is working together. Whether it’s updating stock levels across platforms or sending personalized communications based on customer behavior, Shopify Flow keeps your channels synchronized without manual intervention.

Concentrate on Branding and Messaging Consistency

It is crucial to keep your branding consistent at every touchpoint — from when the customer receives an email, reads a social post or goes on your website. Shopify integrates with key marketing automation tools like Klaviyo, Mailchimp, and HubSpot to create consistent branding via email & SMS campaigns in harmony.

You reinforce brand trust and recognition by maintaining the same voice, tone, and design elements across channels. Even small things, like matching your website’s color palette with your Instagram feed, make a difference.

Optimize for Mobile

Shopping on mobile is no longer a trend. Over the last year, it’s estimated that 56% of all online sales came from a mobile device—a number that has increased yearly since smartphones were invented. Your Shopify store needs to be well-optimized for mobile shopping so you can provide a consistent omnichannel experience.

Not all mobile shopping ends when customers leave your store. You can send push notifications or use SMS marketing to reach a customer directly on their phone. With an app like Shopify Ping, you can chat with customers in real-time using Facebook Messenger or Apple Business Chat and deliver personalized support wherever they are. Provide payment and fulfillment choices.

Offer Flexible Payment and Fulfillment Options

Omnichannel strategies are all about flexibility. Shopify can connect to more than 100 payment gateways—from credit cards like Visa and Mastercard to digital wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Amazon Pay. Cryptocurrency payments can even be configured if desired. Shopify also integrates with “buy now, pay later” solutions via Klarna, Afterpay, and Affirm.

Providing the customer with multiple payment options will enhance their buying experience and lower friction at checkout. For example, if a customer is paying in installments, they might be more likely to complete their purchase if that option is offered.

Analyze and Iterate

Finally, the key to a successful omnichannel strategy is constant optimization. With built-in analytics, including integration with Google Analytics and Facebook Insights, you can clearly understand your customer behavior on the Shopify website.

Use Shopify’s built-in reports to track key metrics like:

Sales by Channel: Identify which sales channels are performing best, whether it’s your online store, social media, or in-store sales.
Customer Behavior: Monitor how customers move through your sales funnel and identify areas for improvement.
Inventory Management: Track stock levels across channels to ensure you’re never over- or under-stocked.

Conclusion

An omnichannel strategy can help you unify the experience and make it hassle-free for your customers. Thanks to Shopify’s full suite of tools – from POS systems to Shopify Flow — setting a strategy like this in motion is easier than ever. Your goal should be to provide a seamless touchpoint where you remain focused on the customer journey and integrate your sales channels, testing that all of these paths can consistently offer an experience for those interacting at any point throughout this story arc.

This will not only build customer loyalty but also help you stay ahead of the competition and align your business with how the vast majority of customers shop today.

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13th of July — 2024

BlueBolt Solutions Celebrates the Shopify Summer 24 Editions

Honey Olesen

S hopify Summer Editions 2024 (Unified) was released June 2024 with new features and capabilities to optimize operations, increase sales, and provide excellent customer care.

Empowering E-commerce Excellence

Get ready to dive into the exciting world of Shopify Summer Editions 2024! Let’s explore the standout features that make this release a game-changer for online sellers.

Expand With Markets

Shopify Markets has undergone a significant upgrade, allowing merchants to seamlessly manage cross-border, retail, and B2B expansion all within the Shopify admin. This update opens the door to unlimited growth opportunities.

Additionally, Markets now offer the ability to create highly personalized buyer experiences for each market from a single store, eliminating the complexities of managing separate stores and data synchronization.

Furthermore, Shopify Plus merchants can expand their B2B operations more easily by customizing store themes for each B2B market, efficiently catering to different regions.

Introducing Shopify Magic

With features like Sidekick, an AI-powered virtual assistant, or advanced image-creating programs, Shopify Magic uses advanced technology to make running a business easier.

Create professional product photos with the Shopify AI-enabled image editing tool. Using Shopify Magic, build SEO-friendly product descriptions. Easily classify products with AI-suggested categories, attributes, and values to make them more discoverable in storefronts and marketplaces.

Style Settings

Style Settings allows merchants to customize storefront layouts to match their brand’s evolving look. Merchants can now easily adjust layout, size, and spacing across different devices, including mobile. Additionally, introducing Flex Sections allows for easy drag-and-drop customization of theme components, empowering merchants to achieve their desired storefront aesthetics without needing extensive coding knowledge.

Split Shipping

Not yet released, split shipping in checkout will give customers more clarity and choice by showing them when an order will be split into multiple shipments. This feature allows customers to choose different shipping methods for various items within the same order, depending on their needs. For instance, customers can opt for faster delivery of urgent items while selecting standard shipping for less urgent goods.

Rebuilt Analytics

Shopify rebuilt its analytics tech stack to make it faster, more flexible, and more intuitive. This upgrade allows merchants to view, explore, and manage their data in real-time, aiding in more informed decision-making.

Merchants can customize their dashboards, creating dynamic data tables like Excel pivot tables. Don’t have time to make a custom report? Shopify provides drag-and-drop pre-made reports that merchants can resize according to their needs. Furthermore, merchants can soon use ShopifyQL to query data inside a report.

BlueBolt Solutions: Your Go-To for Online Success

At BlueBolt Solutions, we’re committed to keeping our clients at the forefront of online shopping. The Shopify Summer 24 Editions present a significant opportunity for our clients to elevate their businesses and provide their customers with the best shopping experience. With over 150 new updates designed to make the platform faster, stronger, and more connected, our team is here to guide you in seamlessly integrating these new features and maximizing these incredible upgrades. You can count on us as your trusted partner for this exciting journey.

Reach out to us for expert advice and strategic planning as you navigate through the latest updates on Shopify. Let’s work together to transform your online business into a hub of innovation, growth, and unparalleled achievement! We can’t wait to embark on this journey with you.

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For more information on the Shopify Summer 24 Editions, visit the official Shopify Editions page.

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27th of June — 2023

14 Key Factors in Selecting the Best Commerce Software

Jason Lichon

The right commerce software can impact the success of an online business in many ways, setting a business up for success from the start – or causing undue frustrations from software limitations or poor user interfaces. From improving customer experiences to increasing revenue, it is important for brands to carefully consider their needs and choose an ecommerce platform that best fits their specific requirements and goals. Fortunately, our BlueBolt team is steeped in ecommerce expertise and can help businesses choose the right platform from the start, avoiding costly mistakes. When selecting an ecommerce software platform, there are several important features to consider, including:

User-Friendly Interface

An ecommerce platform should be easy to use a company’s customers. The platform should have a simple and intuitive interface that allows customers to find products and make purchases quickly and easily. Additionally, the right ecommerce software should have an admin panel that is simple for marketers to use. There are multiple ecommerce software platform options that no longer require IT teams to make most updates, enabling marketing teams to quickly react to analytics and spin up relevant promotions and campaigns.

Responsive Design

With ever increasing electronic device options, it’s important for an ecommerce website to function well and be aesthetically pleasing, whether a customer is using their cell phone, a tablet, a laptop or a desktop computer. Customers can quickly get annoyed and abandon a website does not perform well on the device they are using.

Supports Multiple Selling Channels

In addition to offering multi-site and multi-lingual storefronts, it’s vital that an ecommerce software allows selling across a brand’s omnichannel strategy, which can include featuring products across a multitude of marketplaces and social media platforms.

Personalization and Smart Product Recommendations

Thanks to websites like Amazon, customers are demanding personalized shopping experiences. Ecommerce software platforms help drive this experience by offering smart product recommendations, segmenting target markets, defining personas for marketing campaigns and retargeting potential customers across omnichannel offerings. Offering personalized experiences is now tablestakes for brands looking to succeed in ecommerce.

Customization Options

An ecommerce platform should offer customization options to tailor the storefront to the specific needs of the business. This includes the ability to add custom branding, flexible product displays, tailored checkout processes, multiple shipping methods, custom promotions and relevant third-party integrations.

Payment Processing

An ecommerce platform of choice should have multiple relevant payment options available to your customers such as credit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, ACH transfers and other popular payment gateways. Ideally, it should also support a wide range of currencies to cater to both a global and digital customer base.

PCI Compliant Checkout

PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliance is a set of standards that ensure secure handling of credit card information during transactions. PCI compliant checkout is critical for any ecommerce business that accepts credit card payments. It helps protect customer data, ensures legal compliance, builds trust in the business, increases sales, and reduces liability.

Scalability

Adaptability to traffic is a very important aspect to consider, as the right ecommerce platform should be able to grow with the business. It is vital for the software to be able to handle an increasing number of products, traffic, and sales without compromising performance.

Security

Security should be a top priority for all ecommerce companies. The best software platform should have robust security features such as SSL encryption, PCI compliance, and regular security updates to protect customer data.

Analytics and Reporting

In an age where data is abundant, an ecommerce platform should provide robust and meaningful analytics and reporting tools to help marketers understand customer behavior, track sales, and optimize their store for maximum performance.

Integration with Third-Party Apps

Support for integration with third-party apps such as order management, inventory management, email marketing, and social media tools are necessary components for a successful ecommerce system implementation. The best ecommerce software platforms will offer an API first model, enabling teams to easily make connections with their software to enable website solution performance.

Search Engine Optimization

SEO is an important strategy for ecommerce businesses that want to attract organic traffic, improve their visibility, and gain a competitive advantage. By continually optimizing the website and producing high-quality content, businesses can attract and retain customers over the long-term, ultimately leading to increased sales and revenue.

Asian business men use laptop computer checking customer order online

Customer Support

The best ecommerce platforms offer reliable customer support through various channels such as phone, email, and chat, with a knowledgeable support team that is responsive to help resolve any issues that arise.

Transparent Pricing

Considering many ecommerce platforms offer pricing based on transactions and similar variables, it is important that their pricing structure is transparent and easy to understand.

This list is the starting point of factors to consider when selecting the best ecommerce software solution for your team. Our team of ecommerce veterans can provide excellent platform selection guidance. To inquire about this service kindly click on the contact us below. Consulting with our BlueBolt team can help you avoid costly and frustrating issues by ensuring you find the right commerce platform for your business needs.

26th of June — 2023

The Best Commerce Approach: Headless Commerce, Composable Commerce or MACH Commerce

Jason Lichon

H eadless Commerce, Composable Commerce, and MACH Commerce are all modern approaches to building ecommerce platforms, but they differ in their specific focus and emphasis.

Our BlueBolt team is comprised of talented commerce veterans who help clients define which of these commerce methodologies, and which corresponding ecommerce software partners, will best meet their business needs. In this blog, I share how each of these approaches to commerce can help clients win in business.

Headless Commerce

Headless Commerce refers to the complete separation of the front-end presentation layer from the back-end ecommerce engine. With headless commerce, the front-end is decoupled from the back-end, which allows for greater flexibility and agility in designing and deploying new user experiences. In this approach, the ecommerce platform provides APIs that enable the front-end to access the back-end data and functionality, enabling developers to use any technology stack they want to build the front-end. Ecommerce platforms such as Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, Commercetools, Shopware, Scayle, Elastic Path, Bloomreach, Znode, and Intershop have all been rated by analysts as good Headless Ecommerce platforms. Additionally, Vue Storefront is the first ecommerce software vendor to offer a specialized FEaaS, Front-End as a Service, which integrates with many of the headless ecommerce software platforms.

Composable Commerce

Composable Commerce is an architecture that emphasizes modularity and flexibility in building an ecommerce platform. In a Composable Commerce architecture, the platform is built as a collection of modular components or services, each of which performs a specific function. These components can be assembled and reassembled in different ways to create different ecommerce experiences, allowing for greater flexibility and agility in adapting to changing business needs. Examples of Composable Commerce software platforms that are rated by industry analysts as leaders in the space include Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, Optimizely, Sitecore, commercetools, Infosys, Spryker, Kibo and Vue Storefront.

MACH Commerce

MACH Commerce is a set of principles that guide the design and development of modern ecommerce platforms. MACH is an acronym that stands for Microservices-based, API-first, Cloud-native, and Headless Commerce. It emphasizes the use of microservices, APIs, and cloud-native infrastructure to build an ecommerce platform that is flexible, scalable, and can easily integrate with other systems. MACH Commerce was first introduced by ecommerce software vendor Commercetools, which created a MACH alliance with other vendors, including Infosys Equinox, Vue Storefront, and Sitecore.

Defining the Best Commerce Approach and Platform for Your Company

While Headless Commerce, Composable Commerce, and MACH Commerce share some similarities, they differ in their specific focus and emphasis. Headless Commerce focuses on decoupling the front-end and back-end, Composable Commerce emphasizes modularity and flexibility in building an ecommerce platform, and MACH Commerce focuses on the use of microservices, APIs, and cloud-native infrastructure to build a flexible and scalable ecommerce platform.

Interested in exploring which of these approaches to ecommerce would produce the best return on investment for your brand? Want recommendations of which ecommerce software vendor will deliver dividends for your team? Or do you have a platform in mind and simply want feedback as to whether it will meet your needs? Simply fill out our connect with us form and we will get in touch with you.

8th of March — 2023

Noteworthy Shopify Updates in Shopify’s Winter Edition 2023

Chuck Goldsworthy

S hopify recently rolled out their Winter Editions 2023, which features100+ new product updates and announcements. As a Shopify Plus Partner, our team can’t wait to test out these new features and functionalities.

Most of all, our team is very excited for the new flexibility and customization Shopify is enabling on their platform – and how this will enable us to deliver better solutions for our clients. Below are the standouts from Shopify’s Winter Edition 2023 that are worth calling out. Since there are a lot of great updates, we categorized them into updates for developers, B2B merchants, marketers and social media marketers. Hope you find these helpful! If you have questions on how to implement these in your project, please reach out to us.

Shopify Winter Edition News Developers Will Love

Shopify Functions

In the latest Winter Edition 2023, Shopify delivered Shopify Functions, a feature that puts the power of the Shopify platform in the hands of the Shopify community. At BlueBolt, we know the new Shopify Functions will be a game changer for merchants. Shopify Functions opens up Shopify’s backend logic, giving merchants ultimate control over their website. Shopify Functions allows brands to extend and customize Shopify features to meet their unique business needs. With this new feature, developers will now be able to these customizations and have them execute in under 5ms. This enables brands to autoscale for the largest of marketing campaigns and promotions, ensuring you don’t miss sales during Q4 and other special events.

One Page Checkout

Shopify’s checkout leads the ecommerce industry in security, reliability, and performance standards. However, conversion rates have lagged due to the multi-step check out process, giving shoppers opportunities to abandon their orders. For years, merchants have relied on custom development work or third-party apps to work around these limitations to help increase their conversion rates. With Winter Editions 2023, Shopify announced a one-step checkout is now standard across all Shopify storefronts, with built-in checkout extension functionality. Brands are now able to update the look and feel of their checkout with the Branding API, add upsells, cross-selling opportunities, and dynamic discounts within a singular view. This welcomed update enables customers to complete their checkout, without leaving the buying experience. Additionally, the One Page Checkout feature is locked down for security and speed optimization, which will be appreciated by merchants and their shoppers alike.

Drag-and-Drop Checkout Editor

One neat feature of Winter Editions 2023 is Shopify’s new drag and drop checkout editor, which makes it easier for developers and merchants to customize and integrate Shop Pay seamlessly. The new drag and drop editor can be found in the “Checkout and Accounts” tab of the Shopify store dashboard, where merchants can customize the checkout page easily. The new editor allows brands to change the checkout interface design, such as the logo, text colors, text fonts, and more, giving merchants control of their Storefront presentation. Additionally, if merchants want to design a more unique checkout page, they can use the Checkout Branding API and API Client tool. Additionally, companies can now also install external applications to add features that can increase the conversion rate on the checkout page, enabling cross-sell setup and automatic discount setup. The new checkout is fully responsive, ensuring an optimal experience on any device, including cell phones.

Product Bundles

Shopify agency partners have long been asking for product bundles, so this is exciting news for developers! Creating native product bundles celebrates the platform’s ability to accept product variability and complexity. This allows merchants to create new combinations of SKU offerings and new product experiences, which ultimately helps increase Average Order Value (AOV). Bundling is still in beta mode and invite-only for now. However, it is expected to be widely released in the coming months.

Granular Permissions

To help make managing a business and team easier for merchants, Shopify announced new granular staff permissions that help delegate more product related tasks with confidence. There are ten new granular permissions for products, including view-only permissions, so merchants can have better control over staff access across to products. These new permissions include view products, view cost, create and edit products, edit cost, edit price, manage inventory, delete products and collections, view catalogs (price list), create and edit catalogs and delete catalogs. These new permissions give merchants the ability to delegate with confidence.

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Exciting Shopify Winter Edition Updates for B2B Merchants

‍B2B APIs

A customizable B2B sales channel has long been an acknowledged weak spot with the Shopify platform. With Shopify’s new B2B APIs, brands can now create customizable rules and functions for the most complicated of wholesale businesses. These B2B API’s enable marketers to set up custom pricing tiers, delivery notes, net payment terms, loyalty programming for select customers, and much more. BlueBolt is excited to bring this new functionality to our B2B clients.

B2B Vaulting Payments

Shopify just launched B2B Vaulting Payment, which enables B2B buyers to vault credit cards and reuse them for purchases at checkout, for both pay now and with payment terms. This feature provides B2B buyers the flexibility to seamlessly pay for orders at checkout or to be charged at a future date when their payment is due, without manually re-entering their credit card information. This happens all while providing the merchant peace of mind and ability to more efficiently complete payments on orders without buyer interaction.

Additionally, both B2B buyers and B2B merchants have full visibility and control over their vaulted credit cards. This process allows for credit cards to be stored at the company location level so that any B2B buyer for that location has the ability to manage their vaulted cards on their customer account. This means B2B buyers can view and delete any of their vaulted credit cards at anytime.

Merchants can also view and delete vaulted credit cards including the ability to charge buyer’s vaulted credit cards through the admin controls. Additionally, merchants will be able to push notifications for B2B buyers to update their vaulted credit card information via their account.

Quantity Rules

With their commitment to offer B2B ecommerce as an integral part of their platform, Shopify continues to expand their B2B product offerings. Since the platform started to support B2B business 6 months ago, Shopify has released diverse features and support. Quantity rules are one of the new features in this Shopify Winters Edition. This enables merchants to create order quantity rules, including minimums, maximums, case packs, and increments. These quantity rules will increase the Average Order Value and simplify the fulfillment process, which is a welcome addition for B2B merchants.

Checkout to Draft for B2B

Traditionally, B2B commerce orders are very nuanced and complex, needing multiple checks in the ordering process to ensure the right custom product is delivered. With Shopify’s new Checkout to Draft feature, B2B merchants can streamline the order process for their customers by using the Checkout to Draft. Customers can place draft orders and submit them to a merchant, so the orders will not be processed until both parties confirm the details. In this feature, merchants can also change the order content in case they lack inventory. Since orders from a business can be large in volume and amount, being able to manage risks within Shopify is very convenient for B2B merchants.

Marketing Teams Will Appreciate these Shopify Winter Edition Additions

Shop Promise

Another one of the most exciting announcements for marketers in Shopify’s Winter Edition has to be Shop Promise. Shopify has announced that it is going to compete head-to-head with Amazon by guaranteeing two-day delivery. It’s bundled as a sales channel within Shopify’s fulfillment network and available within the Shop app. It’s too soon to say whether or not this will move the needle for merchants’ conversion rates and increase Net Promoter Scores (NPS scores) for brands. However, Shop Promise appears to be a promising new offering to entice more brands to join Shopify’s in-house fulfillment network.

Shop Minis

The direction Shopify is taking with the Shop mobile app is an intriguing customer acquisition strategy. Originally initiated as a way for shoppers to get delivery tracking and notifications for their orders, Shop is the go-to mobile destination for discovering brands across Shopify’s network. Now, Shop is introducing Minis to enhance the buying experience further. It’s slowly transforming into fully-fledged mobile shopping app featuring the best of Shopify’s brands. Shop Minis lets customers interact with video reviews, shoppable Instagram posts, and live shopping. While still in its early days, it’s exciting to hear how Shopify is extending their platform to help merchants attract new customers and build loyalty.

Markets Pro

The new Shopify Markets Pro is an all-in-one, global market solution that helps merchants enter hundreds of markets with just a few clicks. Markets Pro is an extension of Shopify Markets, which launched in February 2022. Companies that use Shopify Markets benefit from a centralized hub of cross-border features to streamline back-office operations, as well as a selection of localization tools. Within Markets Pro, brands also have access to liability management features like prepaid duties and fraud protection, automated localization to better the buyer experience, and pre-negotiated international shipping rates. Shopify’s Markets Pro is a turnkey solution for marketers looking to sell merchandise internationally.

POS GO: All-in-One Mobile Selling Hardware

Not only is Shopify is the leading eCommerce platform, but it also features great in-person purchasing experiences. POS GO is Shopify’s latest mobile POS (point of sale) device that can help you sell products in person, such as at a market, event in a brick-and-mortar store. With this device, brands can easily manage all inventory in one place. Shopify’s PSO GO joins a great line up of other Shopify POS devices, giving marketers even more capabilities to reach customers wherever they may be shopping.

AI Generated Product Descriptions

Anyone who has worked with websites knows how time intensive and exhausting it can be to put effective product descriptions into the metadata fields for each product in a Shopify store to optimize SEO values. With Shopify Magic, marketers no longer need to spend valuable time on these repetitive (but important) tasks. The new Shopify Magic announced in Shopify’s Winter Edition 2023 can create product descriptions based on keywords or product features. It even allows marketers to choose the text language tone. Since the descriptions contain input keywords, the product description will tend to be strong for SEO. Leveraging this new feature will greatly reduce time to market and increase staff productivity.

Translate and Adapt App

With Shopify’s new features, there will be no national or language border for eCommerce. For marketers selling in one country, localizing your Shopify store content for your market can increase site traffic, improve SEO, and expand your target market area. The Shopify app store has a dedicated Translation and Adapt App that provides free automatic translation in up to two languages. The editor allows you to easily compare and review translations and tailor content for different market characteristics. Currency or regional regulations also may be a potential barrier to expanding the store globally. For marketers who are selling products internationally, check out Shopify’s Market PRO to learn about Shopify’s end-to-end capabilities.

What Social Media Marketers Will Enjoy About the 2023 Shopify Winter Editions

Sync and Sell on YouTube

Easily Sync and Sell products on YouTube! Shopify collaborated with YouTube so that brands can now sell products on the streaming app to create a new shopping experience for customers. After continuing its partnership with Google, Shopify allows brands to sell products directly on YouTube. With this Sync and Sell feature, marketers can put product information below videos, pin it in the chat, or tag it during a live stream. Products appear as pinnable product cards throughout the video stream, where viewers can buy instantly from their favorite creators. This smart move enables Shopify stores to dominate one of the largest ecommerce marketplaces, allows merchants to sell in one of the world’s largest search engines, and strengthens relationships with YouTube creators turned DTC brand founders. It extends Shopify’s progress and cultural cache with the ‘cool’ kids and leverages Google’s reach as a powerful sales channel add-on layered with YouTube.

Shopify Collabs for Influencer Marketing

Because Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) are increasing sharply due to environmental factors, such as privacy regulations, more and more social media marketers are starting to pay attention to collaboration. Shopify Collabs offers merchants a platform to leverage creator partnerships for their Shopify store. Collaboration partnerships typically are formed in three areas – partnerships with other brands, collaboration with social media influencers who have a large following, and every day customers who want to participate in user generated content. With Shopify Collabs, brands can now create and manage a community of creators who promote products to their fans. Normally, conducting influencer marketing takes time because a suitable creator needs to be matched to a brand image, then marketers send out product samples, and communicate with their influencers to keep track of their creation process. However, with Shopify Collabs, this is all managed in one place, including sending gifts, tracking orders and managing relationships. With a growing database of influencers across industries, brands can contact them directly, set up commission-based affiliate links, and launch promotional campaigns with minimal effort. Shopify Collabs will become a necessary tool in the Shopify marketing stack.

Tokengated Experiences

NFT (Non-Fungible Token) technology excels at incentivizing people and building community through token design. In Shopify’s ecommerce predictions for 2023, it is expected that this technology will be leveraged to offer customers a new purchasing experience and increase sales dramatically this year and next. This new Shopify feature allows merchants to distribute unique NFTs in their Shopify store. For example, brands can reward loyal customers by giving them unique NFTs, which many customers enjoy collecting. Moreover, since NFT is a sort of digital currency, collectors feel they belong to a community among people who own same or similar NFTs.

In summary, the Shopify Plus Winter 23 Edition is a major upgrade to the software titan’s ecommerce platform, offering new and improved features designed to enhance merchant’s online store’s performance and customer experience. Whether merchants are looking to streamline their order fulfillment process, manage inventory more efficiently, or provide a better customer experience, the Shopify Plus Winter 23 Edition has you covered. If you need a Shopify expert who can help you with your commerce priorities, click the contact us button and let us know how we can help.

Need Shopify Plus Expertise? BlueBolt Can Help.

7th of March — 2023

Shopify Functions: The New Way to Customize Shopify

Chuck Goldsworthy

S hopify has been leading the ecommerce software industry for over 16 years, building out features and functionality that empower merchants to sell their products globally. In their latest Winter Edition 2023, Shopify delivered a feature that is going to make commerce better for everyone by putting the power of Shopify in the hands of the Shopify community.

At BlueBolt, we are thrilled to hear about the new Shopify Functions which open up more of the backend logic, which makes the Shopify platform more flexible for merchants and their developers. Shopify Functions is a powerful new way to extend and customize Shopify features to meet the unique business needs for all Shopify brands. With Functions, developers will now be able to build powerful customizations, which execute in under 5ms. This enables brands to scale up for big sales promotions, ensuring you don’t miss sales during Q4 and other special marketing events.

How will Shopify Functions work?

Essentially, Shopify is allowing developers to access the backend of Shopify to extend or replace key parts of Shopify’s logic with custom code. Since Functions are installed with an app, merchants can configure them directly in the admin, without having to touch a line of code. Functions are starting off with familiar backend customizations for discounts, shipping, and payment methods. In time, Shopify says we can expect to see support for shipping rates, checkout and cart validations, return validations, and order routing in the near future. The great thing about this new Functions architecture is that it provides the flexibility of open source, without the hassle of hosting, security, and management of forked code. Also, since Functions run on Shopify infrastructure, it will stay on the upgrade path with everything else on the platform.

“Shopify Functions is the most important updates Shopify has made recently. It allows clients to customize their Shopify Plus storefront easier than every before, putting them in the drivers seat. This alone makes upgrading to Shopify 2.0 worthwhile.”
– Chuck Goldsworthy, Shopify Plus Director of Delivery, BlueBolt

Why did Shopify create Shopify Functions?

As the market leader, Shopify knows how important it is for merchants to build successful promotions and offer unique buying experiences to help differentiate your brand from competition. Here are several reasons Shopify shared as to the reasons behind Shopify Functions:

Shopify Functions are easier to use – With Functions, you don’t need to worry about modifying code to adjust your promotions anymore. Instead, Functions are installed like any other app and they’re configured directly in the Admin, alongside built-in Shopify features.
Shopify Functions are more accessible – Another great thing about Functions is that they’re distributed in apps, making them available for purchase in the Shopify App Store.
Shopify Plus-exclusive features – Shopify Plus brands get the exclusive ability to write their own Functions and distribute them to their store in a custom app. So, if a specific discount, shipping, or payment use case isn’t yet available in the Shopify App Store, or if the use case is too niche or advanced for the general public, Shopify Plus brands can simply build the functionality that they need themselves.
Shopify Functions provide easier reporting – Any discount built with Functions will show up in Shopify Analytics sales reporting, including the Sales by Discount report. Meaning, you’ll have a single source of truth that you can use to review all your discounts.

We are truly excited and hope to help our clients leverage Shopify Functions to build out customized functionality to bring their brands to life – and drive continual ROI for them. We believe that Shopify Functions will give brands the control and flexibility to build things that not yet anticipated.

Get Help from the Leading Shopify Plus Partner

Join Us at ShopTalk

16th of February — 2023

10 Strategies to Improve Site Search and Conversion Rates

Chris Risner

D id you know that one of the fastest ways to build customer satisfaction and loyalty is to make your website easy to navigate? Consider these statistics… Up to 30% of visitors use a site search box when one is offered.

Also in studies, 15% of total visitors used site search, but these visitors accounted for 45% of all revenue. (Addsearch) Pretty compelling, right? However, while marketers contemplate adding search to websites to best serve customers, the hidden truth is that site search is the path to direct, real-time analytics, direct from the fingertips of your customers. While these statistics sadly won’t entirely replace the need for Google Analytics and making the switch to Google Analytics 4, intel coming from your site search data has no filter between you and your customer. In addition to all these great statistics, here are 10 ways to improve both site search and conversion rates:

Site Search and Conversions

Did you know that site search bar users convert at a rate five to six times higher than their counterparts not using a search engine? Inbox Insights found that customers using site search boxes are strongly signaling their intent to purchase or engage with content when they place a query in a search box.

Cutting Through the Noise with Site Search

Site search can play an important role in your customers’ satisfaction. 30+% of customers use a site search (Addsearch) box to find products and content when one is offered. With customers continually being inundated with digital ads everywhere they look, offering your users that ability to cut through the noise quickly and precisely will lead to higher satisfaction and improved conversions. Offering site search as well as clear navigation on your website is the foundation of building loyalty among your customers.

Quickly Drill Down to the Right Content with Faceted Search

It’s critical to offer faceted search. Filters and facets make it easier for a web user to narrow down what customers need. However, be careful not to provide too many search options, as it can also quickly get overwhelming. When done right, faceted search can help your customers quickly find their desired content and products.

Location Matters – Even with Site Search

Place your search box where a user can find it, according to standard UX site search and conventions. Really, this sounds like common sense, but it needs to be included based on what we’ve seen. Our team strongly suggests search boxes should at least 25 characters wide and put it in an obvious spot on the page, such as in a sticky top navigation bar or a list of faceted search options in the left rail. Over time, you can also A/B test the placement of the search box (experimentation blog) to see which placement users prefer.

Mobile Matters Too

Don’t forget mobile. For companies who have a high level of mobile engagement, optimization is crucial for your website, as well as the search results page. To drive deep customer satisfaction, it’s important to go beyond just having a functional search box for mobile app users. Consider making changes that correspond with having a small screen space, such as limiting the number of facets or the character count of result descriptions.

Don’t Just Search Metadata

Search the actual content and products, not just metadata. Given that metadata is a very short summary of content and products, it stands to reason that only searching metadata would not provide a complete list of search results, especially content results. In a worst-case scenario, you may have the content on your website your customers are looking for, but the details may not be in the metadata, which would return zero results – and force your customer to go search for their needs among your competitors.

Site Search Engages Users

Engage users with search suggestions. After all, customers don’t know what they don’t know. Thanks to predictive text and natural language processing abilities, queries are able to be populated as customers begin typing. Furthermore, the more your customer engages with content on your site or performs searches, the more suggestion recommendations search engines like BravoSquared can make.

Site Search Growth

Create a strategy for how your site search will evolve with your website. Customers’ expectations are constantly evolving in this fast paced, digital world. Social media, blog posts, email campaigns and Google ads are transforming the marketing landscape, but also create a lot of noise. It’s important to create a roadmap of how your search solution capabilities can continually enhance the website user experience – and vice versa.

Real Time Analytics with Site Search

Leverage search activity in your content and ecommerce strategy. Your customers’ search engine queries are analytics showing you what customers want from your site. Analytics do not get any more direct or clear than this. Additionally, queries that return no results or results with low click-through rates is a great indicator of what is not working on your website – and a hint that you either need to revamp this information or abandon it altogether. It’s also possible that your digital offerings have gone stale – and your customers are eager for new content and products.

Optimize Based on Data Direct from Customers

Analyze and optimize continually. Make it a habit to track the impact of every search function change on the total number of conversions. Overtime, this optimization will pay dividends.

Our BlueBolt team believes in the power of site search so much that we created our own search product, BravoSquared. Bravo combines the power of site search with artificial intelligence and machine learning to power relevant results the first time and every time. Bravo also excels at delivering smart product recommendations to help increase your ecommerce metrics. If you have questions about site search, we are always happy to answer them.

Schedule a Complimentary Site Search Consultation

Yes, Please!

7th of February — 2023

Why Upgrade to Shopify 2.0

Chuck Goldsworthy

There are some exciting and useful updates to the Shopify platform that make a Shopify 2.0 platform upgrade worth considering. The new version of Shopify makes it easier to personalize your store and gives you more powerful developer tools, while also upgrading both security and scalability. With sections on every page, app-powered blocks and flexible data storage, the process of building a theme on Shopify is easier than ever before. Here are a few reasons why the Shopify 2.0 upgrade is worth the time, effort and money:

Sections Everywhere

Historically, Shopify has only allowed sections on the home page of your store, which has frustrated many a merchant and developer. BlueBolt’s favorite feature in Shopify 2.0 is that Sections are now able to be used on every page, giving merchants the ultimate control over the store, as well as the ability to personalize their customers’ experience. In a world where everyone is looking to stay ahead of their competitors, this upgrade has the potential to be a game changer for savvy brands (and developers).

Enhanced Features

Shopify 2.0 offers a range of new features such as improved checkout, a more user-friendly admin interface and more customization options for your store’s design. These features can help streamline your business operations and make it easier for customers to purchase from your store. The other benefit to these updates is that they truly make developers happy, as they now have a much more robust toolkit to help them run your store more efficiently.

Improved App Integration

While the Shopify marketplace is full of powerful apps to help you run your ecommerce store, the way they were installed with Shopify 1.0 was quite inflexible, frustrating many developers and merchants. That has all changed with Shopify 2.0. Now, apps are installed in your storefront as modular app blocks. This has numerous benefits such as being able to control which pages the blocks appear on and allowing for improved editing features, can help create personalized experiences, maximizing the app’s benefits. This is all done through the enhanced configuration options.

Better Scalability

As your business grows, so does the need for more advanced features and functionality. Shopify 2.0 is built to scale with your business, making it a great choice for businesses that are looking to expand in the future. Shopify Plus’s cloud-based infrastructure—which has powered over 600,000 merchants at 80,000 requests per second —was built to be resilient, with systems for controlled latency and solutions to ensure no single point of failure. To maintain peak performance, Shopify’s in-house team manually performs extensive passive load testing and optimizations by combing through critical parts of the platform. The result is 99.99% uptime, with servers capable of handling thousands of transactions per minute, all without slowing your store’s overall performance.

Increased Security

Shopify 2.0 comes with several enhanced security features. This can help protect your business and customers from cyber threats and give them peace of mind when making purchases from your store. The updated security features include additional password strength indicators, two-factor authentication, encryption and fraud detection capabilities.

Faster Performance

One of the core tenants of delivering a great customer experience, as well as improving your SEO, is delivering a website with fast page loading times. Shopify 2.0 boasts faster load times and improved overall performance, which can lead to a better user experience resulting in increased sales and customer satisfaction. Google research has shown a website loading time of between 1.5 and 3 seconds is optimal. Slower than that and users may abandon your cart or website. For example, Shopify’s new standard storefront theme ‘Dawn’ is 35% faster than the previous default theme. Switching themes may decrease your load time, leading to fewer bounces and secure sales. Additionally, many of Shopify’s new themes have increased functionality, so that your website many not need as many external apps. This again may improve your page loading speed.

Overall, upgrading to Shopify 2.0 can offer a range of benefits for your business. Ultimately, all of these improvements will enhance not only your customer’s shopping experience, but it will also make it more pleasurable to run and manage your store, making this upgrade a win-win. The good news is that with all Shopify updates, it can be relatively easy to turn on many of these new features. However, if you’ve been looking for a time to redesign your store, now is the time to do it so that your team can take advantage of the new Sections upgrade.

Need Help Upgrading to Shopify 2.0?

14th of November — 2022

BlueBolt Named a Certified BigCommerce Agency Partner

David Risner

V eteran digital agency partners with BigCommerce to deliver exceptional ecommerce experiences.

Chicago (Nov. 14, 2022) – BlueBolt, Inc. announced today it was named a BigCommerce Certified Agency Partner. An award-winning, full service digital agency, BlueBolt further solidifies its ecommerce expertise with this key partnership.

BlueBolt’s partner affiliation with BigCommerce, a leading Open SaaS ecommerce platform for fast-growing and established B2C and B2B brands, cements another outstanding platform/implementation partner option for brands to choose from when seeking composable, customizable ecommerce solutions.

“BigCommerce is a powerful ecommerce platform, featuring robust tools clients can utilize to maximize their revenue,” shared David Risner, CEO and Co-Founder of BlueBolt. “Our team looks forward to witnessing collective growth for our clients, especially in Business to Business (B2B) ecommerce, Direct to Consumer (D2C) and Omnichannel marketing.”

“We value the trust and confidence the BlueBolt team has in delivering high value commerce solutions to clients through the BigCommerce platform,” said Marc Ostryniec, Chief Sales Officer at BigCommerce. “Growth in our business is predicated on collaborating with great partners who have the technical expertise and strategic innovation to deliver on the promise of next generation B2B, B2C, and channel sales. BlueBolt has that talent and expertise, and we are proud to officially bring them on as a partner.”

BigCommerce Agency Partners are carefully selected to offer best-in-class technical value, astute user experience, and superior customer service. Today, tens of thousands of BigCommerce merchants look to the platform’s world-class agency partner ecosystem for support in creating differentiated shopping experiences to fuel their growth.

With both B2B and B2C shoppers becoming an increasingly younger demographic and driving ecommerce growth opportunities, it’s important to be able to offer clients a variety of ways they can reach their audiences with relevant product offerings, at scale. A veteran in the ecommerce software implementation space, BlueBolt partners with the best-of-breed ecommerce software vendors to create masterful online customer shopping experiences that aims to deliver return on investment for clients.

“It was important to BlueBolt to create an agency partnership with BigCommerce to continue to offer clients best-in-class ecommerce expertise. BlueBolt is proud to be working with the BigCommerce team,” said Risner. “It’s been great to watch BigCommerce evolve into a powerhouse in the ecommerce space – and to equally watch merchants succeed on their platform. We couldn’t be more proud about our new partnership with BigCommerce.”

About BlueBolt

BlueBolt is an award-winning, full-service digital agency. The BlueBolt team is diverse, exceptionally talented, and offers unparalleled consulting on technology projects. BlueBolt’s members are distributed across the USA, yet able to serve digital marketing and ecommerce solutions worldwide. For more information on BlueBolt, please visit blueboltsolutions.com or send email to: hello@bluebolt.wpenginepowered.com.

About BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a leading open software-as-a-service (SaaS) ecommerce platform that empowers merchants of all sizes to build, innovate and grow their businesses online. BigCommerce provides merchants with sophisticated enterprise-grade functionality, customization and performance with simplicity and ease-of-use. Tens of thousands of B2C and B2B companies across 150 countries and numerous industries use BigCommerce to create beautiful, engaging online stores, including Ben & Jerry’s, Molton Brown, S.C. Johnson, Skullcandy, Solo Stove and Vodafone. Headquartered in Austin, BigCommerce has offices in London, Kyiv, San Francisco, and Sydney.

BigCommerce® is a registered trademark of BigCommerce Pty. Ltd. Third-party trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners.

16th of September — 2022

BlueBolt Solutions and Rather Outdoors Awarded Outstanding Website

Chris Risner

R ather’s website scored perfect marks in both design and content, with very high marks in interactivity, copywriting, ease of use, innovation and technology. One judge remarked, “Great high contrast design and vibrant imagery leads the user to the content they seek.”

Chicago – September 16, 2022: BlueBolt, Inc. and Rather Outdoors today announced that they have been awarded “Outstanding Website” by the Web Marketing Association, which was part of Rather’s multi-brand ecommerce website solution launched on the Optimizely platform.

Rather Outdoors, a global outdoors corporation, unites some of the most legendary brands in the fishing space. With historic and iconic brands such as Lew’s, Strike King, Fox, Matrix, Salmo and Fox Rage, Rather Outdoors provides a wide assortment of fishing products worldwide, in an effort to enhance angler’s success and the enjoyment of outdoor pursuits. Rather Outdoors’ mission is to protect and respect the world’s greatest outdoor brands, passing them on to future generations stronger than when they found them.

Part of creating a cohesive, customer first experience for Rather’s brands was to bring disparate websites under one hierarchical architecture on the leading digital experience platform. Optimizely provides best in class content management, ecommerce, digital asset management and optimization capabilities in one robust software platform.

“Our team gained a lot of synergy by bringing all our websites and digital assets onto the Optimizely platform, streamlining website operations for our marketing and IT teams. We are now able to create timely content without the involving an agency or developers. The customer impact has also been quite dramatic in both North America and Europe, with many great year over year statistics increases,” shared Roscoe Rush, Technical Delivery Director at Rather Outdoors.

The Web Marketing Association independently judges each website entry. Rather’s website scored perfect marks in both design and content, with very high marks in interactivity, copywriting, ease of use, innovation and technology. One judge remarked, “Great high contrast design and vibrant imagery leads the user to the content they seek.”

“We are grateful to the Web Marketing Association for the award of Outstanding Website. While it is always great to win a third party industry award, what this honor truly signifies is an excellent client/agency partnership that enabled our joint team to launch a comprehensive, multi-brand, multi-lingual website solution enabling global ecommerce with an exceptional customer driven experience, which continues to drive ROI for our client,” shared Chris Risner, Chief Strategy Officer at BlueBolt.

If you have any questions on how BlueBolt can leverage our ecommerce expertise to help your team crush your KPI’s, please either connect with us via this form or email us at hello@bluebolt.wpenginepowered.com.

About BlueBolt

Founded on Midwestern values, BlueBolt is an award-winning, full service digital agency. Our BlueBolt team is a group diverse, talented and senior level members, distributed across the USA, who empowers exceptional digital marketing and ecommerce solutions worldwide. Since 2005, BlueBolt has had the privilege of working with some truly amazing clients including: SRAM, HockeyShot, Boost Mobile, DISH Network, and many others. We partner with the leading platforms, including Optimizely, Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, Amplience and ContentStack to implement solutions that make our customers’ digital goals a reality. Learn more at www.blueboltsolutions.com.

18th of August — 2022

The Keys to Driving Revenue with B2C ECommerce Websites

Jason Lichon

C onsidering the average eCommerce store has a conversion rate of less than 5%, retailers and other B2C ecommerce companies need to take a hard look at their website properties in order to capitalize on this phenomenon.

Originally projected for 2024, United States consumers will spend an astounding $1 Trillion in 2022 thanks to the global ecommerce acceleration. BlueBolt can help companies improve their revenue by focusing on key strategies of successful B2C ECommerce websites.

User Focused Personalized Journeys

While personalization has been a buzzword for over five years now, there are many brands who are still struggling to implement personalization. One of the biggest reasons for this is many marketers have a hard time making sense of their data because they don’t have the right reporting tools in place. The best software implementation partners will have Creative Design and Systems Integration teams that will help clients put tools in place like Google Analytics 4 and Optimizely Intelligence Cloud, that deliver actionable insights marketers can use to glean important information and improve their website to drive personalized experiences, win customer loyalty and increase revenue. After all, personalization drives performance and better customer outcomes. It is more and more critical to start applying personalization. When comparing slower-growing and fast growing companies, 40% or more of the revenue from the faster growing companies is being delivered by personalization.

Young woman shops on her mobile phone, enjoying content made for her

Appealing Branding Throughout the Website

Partnering with a full service software implementation partner that specializes in data driven website design is vital when implementing your website. Often marketers think that printed marketing materials easily correlates to digital assets. However, UX strategy masters take into account where digital assets are being used in regards to user workflows. Most often, wireframes are detailed out incorporating where it’s best to use each asset to enhance the final customer experience. Today, 75% of people form their opinion about a website based on website aesthetics.

Ease of Navigation

We have all found ourselves on websites with poor navigation that are essentially frustrating rabbit trails of trying to find content and products. Thankfully with the combination of mega navigation menus and federated site search, customers can now find desired items quickly and easily. When looking at a website for the first time, 38% of consumers look at a website’s search or navigational links. Great B2C sites not only offer the products customers are looking for, but they also offer engaging and helpful content in hope to best serve their customer and turn them into a repeat buyer.

Modern Site Search Functionality

For ecommerce sites, a robust and intuitive site search is critical to both ROI and customer loyalty. 43% of users on retail websites go directly to the search bar. Consumers who use search are 2.4 times more likely to buy. Searchers also drive more revenue, spending 2.6x more across mobile and desktop compared to those who don’t use search. In an age where customers want content and products served up quickly, offering site search is the key to pleasing customers. However, many companies or brands have multiple websites. Enter Federated Site Search by BravoSquared. Now marketing teams can serve up site search across all website properties, even disparate sites on multiple software platforms, delivering content and commerce like never before.

Mobile First

Is your team making a mobile first website a top priority? Because 91.5% of people in the world own a smartphone, it’s tablestakes for marketers to ensure their website is optimized for mobile users for both content and ecommerce. Ensuring customers can quickly find their products and experience a frictionless checkout experience on their smartphone is critical to driving revenue. After all, 74% of visitors are likely to come back to a site if it has good mobile UX.

Key of B2C ECommerce - Ease of Navigation

Smart Product Recommendations

In retail stores, merchants have long been positioning like products together such as chips and salsa. Thankfully, Smart Product Recommendation Engines are starting to make this more common in ecommerce. Categories such as display products based on browsing history, frequently bought together items or related items help customers impulse shop, spending more than they had originally intended to when logging onto your site. 54% of retailers reported product recommendations as the key driver of the average order value in the customer purchase. With the ever-increasing costs of customer acquisition, it’s important to not overlook smart product recommendations.

Embracing All Sales Channels

The world of ecommerce is becoming more and more fragmented with the emergence of different channels in which selling takes place. A great article from our ecommerce partner, Shopify, shares how embracing the new multitude of sales channels can pay dividends for clients. Gone are the days that a simple ecommerce store is the only way to reach your audience members. Today sellers have access to traditional marketplaces, modern marketplaces (including virtual worlds with NFTs), retail stores, wholesale channels, resellers, white label, mobile apps, direct to consumer, B2B sales, partnerships and more. While this can be overwhelming at times, the opportunities ecommerce companies have to market their products are more abundant than at any other time in history.

Key of B2C ECommerce - Embracing new sales channels

Friction Free Checkout Process

In an industry with 70% cart abandonment, providing a friction free checkout process is essential. However, to protect you as a merchant, your checkout also needs to be PCI compliant and secure. Currently 1/3 of all ecommerce business is using Shopify’s Shop Pay app, which boasts a 4x faster checkout and converts at a 1.91x times higher than regular checkouts. The other great thing about the Shop Pay app is that it allows merchants to configure it to the settings they like, while keeping up the guardrails that make it PCI compliant, protecting the merchant. Brands have their work cut out for them when competing with frictionless checkout processes like Shopify and Amazon offer.

Systems Integrations

Systems integrations is what makes the business world live in harmony. Things that were once handled manually now “have an app for that.” Whether it’s sales data, business data, inventory management or selling via online marketplaces, systems can now be designed interconnectedly to help your business automate the important – and run smoothly. This enables teams to streamline their efforts and become more effective at running the business, making it easier to achieve your KPIs and increase your ROI.

Social Proof

Historically a LuLuLemon marketing strategy, the past three years has seen the popularity of User Generated Content (UGC), and brands paying influencers to advertise their product, absolutely explode. Recent studies indicate that there is a 106.3% lift in conversion among visitors who interact with user-generated imagery on a product page. Staying on par with this trend, Shopify recently released Dovetail, a product helping brands interact with their influencers and handle their affiliate marketing seamlessly.

Your Secret Sauce Online

Every great brand has a personality or a cause that pulls their followers in. When asking our team which brands they liked, the answers ranged from Athleta to Goli to Southwest Airlines, all of which have a clear brand voice that has been translated to their website. 94% of customers are likely to show loyalty to a brand that offers complete transparency. When asked why our team liked these brands, it was clear that these companies have a seamless experience between their website, their influencers and their brands. We heard that Althleta clothing is comfortable for an athlete while being high quality and size inclusive. Goli Vitamins are not only good for you, but have a mission to do good in the world. Finally, Southwest Airlines employees are a great brand ambassadors for the “Luv Airline.”

Key to B2B ECommerce - Bringing the businesses secret sauce online.

Search Engine Optimization

In a time where customer acquisition ads are quickly becoming cost prohibitive, Search Engine Optimization becomes extremely important so that brands can be found by customers without spending a fortune on Google Ads. The daunting stat that 75% of people never scroll past the first page of search engines have marketers doubling down on ensuring they are fine tuning their SEO strategies. With 63% of all shopping beginning online, even if the purchase itself happens in a store, it is imperative that retailers who do not understand SEO strategies work with partners like BlueBolt to help them get a competitive advantage in today’s marketplace.

Page Speed and Conversion Rates

According to a 2019 study by Portent, a 0-4 second load time is best for conversion rates, and the first five seconds of page-load time have the highest impact on conversion rates. Matter of fact, the best ecommerce conversion rates occur on pages with load times below 2 seconds. Each additional second of load time, drops website conversion rates by an average of 4.42%, the study says. Online tools like Google Page Speed Insights allow you to time and test your website’s page speed. You can also cache your website or enable browser caching to speed up your page load time.

Conversion Rate Optimization

In 2022, one of the most lucrative strategies marketers can employ is conversion rate optimization. Surveying over 3,000 CRO tool users, a VentureBeat study revealed that the average ROI of using CRO tools is 223%. Further, only five percent survey respondents did not generate ROI, meanwhile 173 high performing marketers said they gain returns higher than 1,000 percent! Fortunately, partners like BlueBolt can come alongside marketing teams to help implement CRO testing and harness the data to make it actionable. Platforms like Optimizely’s Intelligence Cloud can also help brands instill a sophisticated experimentation platform to help jumpstart an environment that thrives on optimization.

WCAG and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Compliance

The Baymard Institute reports that 94% of the largest eCommerce websites fail to meet the Level AA requirements of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, the standard for digital accessibility. The most common accessibility problems include:

Not providing text alternatives for images and other non-text content
Missing link text descriptions
Keyboard navigation issues
Inadequate form field markup

For people with disabilities who are trying to shop online, these issues are not only quite frustrating, but often a deal breaker. Thankfully, most of the problems could be addressed easily and inexpensively. Over one billion people live with a disability, making compliance a key to unlocking additional revenue and stronger brand loyalty. As the global population continues to age, digital accessibility will need to become a key consideration for retailers.

In summary, a ton of careful planning, organization and execution goes into making a high performing B2C ecommerce site. Whether you are a retailer or other B2C company, BlueBolt is here to help answer questions and deliver on your priorities. Since 2005, we have helped hundreds of companies with both B2C and B2B ecommerce implementations, integrating content management systems, developing federated enterprise site search solutions and helping set up cultures of optimization and experimentation – all of which help our customers improve their ROI for their digital projects.

11th of August — 2022

Important Considerations for B2B ECommerce Websites

Jason Lichon

B lueBolt has helped many B2B companies create full service websites, online portals and D2C channels. As we help our clients build their next gen websites, the following are important aspects we take into consideration to create great digital B2B ecommerce solutions.

B2B ecommerce is the true backbone of our world today. Every industry is touched by B2B manufacturers and distributors. In 2022, we’ve seen repeated supply chain issues, which is why B2B ecommerce is more important now than at any previous time in history. B2B companies will play a vital role in overcoming supply chain issues and restoring our economy. Therefore it’s vital to know the important considerations for B2B ECommerce websites.

According to Digital Commerce 360, in 2021, online sales on B2B ecommerce sites, login portals and marketplaces increased 17.8% to $1.63 trillion. Statista data suggests that the North American B2B ecommerce market will surpass $4.6 billion by 2025. McKinsey & Company reports that about 65% of B2B companies across industries are fully transacting online in 2022. But the biggest news? For the first time, B2B companies are more likely to offer ecommerce over in person sales.

With B2B ecommerce on the rise to historical levels, it’s important to be mindful of how trends in ecommerce will effect the way consumers shop online and interact with their brands. BlueBolt has helped many B2B companies create full service websites, online portals and D2C channels. As we help our clients build their next gen websites, the following are important aspects we take into consideration to create great digital B2B ecommerce solutions:

Younger B2B Buyer Base

As the population ages, a new day is dawning in the B2B ecommerce landscape. As of 2020, close to half of B2B buyers are millennials — nearly double the amount from 2012. Additionally, 73% of the millennials are involved in the B2B buying process. This change has brought about changing expectations in the B2B buying process, including personalized experiences, mobile purchasing and expedited shipping.

Personalized B2B Buyer Journeys

Because today’s B2B buyer conducts approximately 12 online searches before making a purchase from a specific brand, 55% of B2B marketing budgets are directed toward digital efforts that help provide a more personalized buying experience.

According to Digital Commerce 360, B2B buyers expect various digital efforts from vendors, including:

45% want personalized portal content.
44% are looking for an easy-to-use ROI calculator.
38% seek AR options.
33% want video chat options.

Research has found that 50% of B2B buyers identified improved personalization as a key feature when searching for online suppliers, with consumers spending 48% more with brands when their experience is personalized.

B2B ECommerce Customer Portals and D2C Channels

While the sales funnel was once very straightforward, now 90% of buyers enter, exit and reenter the funnel at various points. Consider a study by PIM leader inRiver which found 43% of respondents – rising to 48% in machinery manufacturing businesses – agreed that customers are often dissatisfied because they can’t self-service. This is very concerning for companies when paired with the brutal statistic that a staggering 90% of B2B buyers would turn to a competitor if a supplier’s digital channel couldn’t keep up with their needs. Given the fact that B2B ecommerce customer portals and D2C channels bring in new revenue streams, first hand customer data and the opportunity to drive customer loyalty, it’s imperative for B2B companies to ensure their customers are finding self-service success.

Important B2B ECommerce Considerations - The rise of portals and D2C Channels

Subscriptions Aren’t Just for B2C ECommerce

Proven to be wildly popular in B2C ecommerce models, forward thinking B2B marketers are finding ways to incorporate recurring revenue models for their businesses. Not only do subscriptions generate predictable recurring revenue and help foster ongoing customer relationships, they offer convenience and predictability that benefit both companies and their customers. Additionally, B2B subscriptions benefit customers by simplifying the complex buying process into one contract that pays dividends repeatedly.

There are several different types of subscription services and products that lend themselves to B2B businesses models including:

Ecommerce subscriptions which allow for recurring purchases of business products, parts, materials and supplies.
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) subscriptions such as monthly or annual licensing models.
Premium access or service models begin with a free subscription that includes basic functionality, which customers can later upgrade to unlock premium paid features.
Usage-based subscription models leverage connectivity to track how much a customer uses a product or service and bills them accordingly on a recurring basis.
Product-based subscriptions charge monthly or annual fees in exchange for the use of products.
Service-based subscriptions offer product support on a recurring basis.

The Rise of B2B Marketplaces

B2B ecommerce sales through websites and online marketplaces are accelerating and growth is at an all-time high. A study done by Sana-Commerce predicts that 75% of B2B procurement spending is projected to happen via an online marketplace within the next five years. According to Gartner, the enterprise marketplace business model creates wider ecosystems, has new capabilities and allows brands to generate new sources of revenue. Marketplaces can be more efficient in time and cost, as they serve as a one-stop-shop for B2B buyers. One of the best advantages of B2B marketplaces is their ability to attract new, engaged audiences. Not only can this mean more sales, but it’s also an opportunity to reach global markets and test new products.

Mobile First B2B ECommerce

Recent B2B research data further indicates the strong influences of millennials in the B2B ecommerce industry. Consider this research by Google and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) showing the importance of a seamless mobile experience for B2B customers:

50% of B2B queries today are made on smartphones.
Mobile drives, or influences, an average of over 40% of revenue in leading B2B organizations.
Approximately 15% of B2B retailers reported having an app for their customers.

Companies who are doing mobile first have a dedicated mobile design for each page of their website, ensuring users have the best experience possible no matter what device they use.

Advanced Smart Product Search

A top pain point for B2B buyers shopping online is finding products. For companies that want to attract B2B buyers it is essential to prioritize a user experience strategy that makes it easy for customers to quickly find what they are looking for, especially because many B2B shoppers already know exactly what they need. There are multiple strategies to create a frictionless B2B buying journey. One way is to offer a personalized customer catalog that features requested products, quick reorder capabilities, preferred payment methods and dynamic shipping options. Another option is ensuring your website has easy navigation with quick reorder options for your repeat buyers. Lastly, offering federated site search from a company like BravoSquared will let your customers browse content and products from all your websites, while also offering smart product recommendations to enhance the purchasing experience and increase the average order value.

Important Consideration in B2B ECommerce - Smart product recommendations

PCI Compliant Checkout Process

Like most everything in B2B ecommerce, the procurement and checkout process is evolving. While it’s important to offer relevant payment terms for your customers, it is equally essential that the payment process is also PCI compliant. Research from our colleagues at Big Commerce shows payment terms in B2B ecommerce are slowly, but surely, modernizing. Credit cards still reign supreme for the online channel (94%), though checks, terms, and purchase orders remain vital for B2B buyers (51%, 53%, 50%, respectively). Also on the rise are mobile wallets like Amazon Pay and Apple Pay (26%). Fortunately, robust B2B software partners like BigCommerce, Shopify and Optimizely offer all these payment capabilities and more.

Conversion Rate Optimization and Experimentation

As complex as B2B ecommerce can be, conversion rate optimization CRO) can be improved by looking at five main items. The earliest and sometimes overlooked step in CRO is click-through rate optimization. Increasing the traffic to your site from Google search results can help grow your potential pipeline, create demand generation and increase overall total leads. The next step in conversion rate optimization is to know your audience. This is especially important when it comes to B2B businesses with potential customers from a variety of roles exploring your site, seeking products and content – and ultimately making critical decisions. The key to CRO is to gather data from a variety of sources so that you can make data driven decisions. Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and heat mapping tools, like Hotjar and Crazy Egg, can provide valuable insights to your customers and how they interact with your website. Last but not least, payment options and website UX remain the two of the most important factors for conversion on a B2B site. It is important to have software like Optimizely Intelligence Cloud that will help you test and retest your website offerings, enabling B2B companies to optimize their website and drive maximum conversions.

Important Considerations in B2B ECommerce - Conversion Rate Optimization

In summary, B2B ecommerce continues to have complex needs in 2022. The good news is that BlueBolt partners with the best B2B software companies in the industry, including BigCommerce, Optimizely and Shopify Plus. Our partners are continually innovating new ways to help streamline B2B complexities to make it easier on your team and customers alike. BlueBolt is an award-winning, full service agency that has helped many B2B brands expand their online offerings, while also streamlining internal processes.

10th of June — 2022

Why Selling Direct-to-Consumer is a Game-Changer

Chris Risner

During the global pandemic and in years past, commerce has seen its ups and downs. According to Statista: “In 2021, direct-to-consumer (D2C) ecommerce sales in the United States surpassed $128 billion U.S. dollars. The U.S. D2C online market is forecast to grow to almost 213 billion U.S. dollars by 2023.” Whether your business has been largely impacted or not, one thing remains certain: companies must be thinking about ways to improve or reimagine their selling strategies now and into the future.

One such strategy is Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) selling. To learn more about opening up DTC channels, download our infographic based on a recent report from Shopify Plus, “The Direct-to-Consumer Guide.”

If you have questions we can help you with, please contact us.

2nd of May — 2022

BlueBolt Solutions Named an Optimizely Gold Partner for FY2022

David Risner

B lueBolt has been an Optimizely partner since 2012, with the B2B Commerce Specialization and has been named a preferred Optimizely’s Partner for implementing Optimizely DXP, B2B and B2C ECommerce Solutions, as well as a qualified partner for Optimizely’s testing and experimentation products.

Chicago, May 3, 2022 — BlueBolt Solutions, an award-winning, full-service ecommerce and digital experience consultancy, today announced it has again been certified as an Optimizely Gold Partner.

BlueBolt has earned the Gold Partner status in Optimizely’s Partner Success Program and is considered a highly experienced partner in the Optimizely Digital Experience Platform™ ecosystem. As a Gold Partner, BlueBolt Solutions has renown full stack competency and implementation experience, with certified resources and specializations in Optimizely solutions. BlueBolt has been an Optimizely partner since 2012 with the B2B Commerce Specialization, formerly Episerver, and has been named a preferred Optimizely’s Partner for implementing Optimizely DXP, B2B and B2C ECommerce Solutions, as well as a qualified partner for Optimizely’s testing and experimentation products.

With a network of over 900 partner companies in 30 countries, Optimizely seeks to connect with qualified partners whose firms possess a wealth of experience, team members with a creative outlook, global reach, and a collective eye toward future opportunities to ensure mutual customers are successful in the short and long term.

“We are proud to partner with Optimizely and be named an Optimizely Gold Partner,” shares David Risner, CEO and Co-Founder of BlueBolt Solutions. “Optimizely continues to lead the way in delivering outstanding digital consumer experiences by staying on the cutting edge of technology. We are honored to be chosen as a gold partner again this year.”

About BlueBolt Solutions

Founded on Midwestern values, BlueBolt is an award winning, full service digital consultancy, with a senior level team distributed across the USA, powering exceptional digital marketing and commerce solutions worldwide.

30th of March — 2022

Why Businesses Should Consider Selling Direct-to-Consumer

Jason Lichon

A ccording to McKinsey & Company, eCommerce penetration experienced ten years’ growth during the pandemic, replacing unavailable physical channels during the height of the pandemic.

Updated from a previous blog in 2020…

From everything businesses learned through the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s clear that success has favored those who were and are proactive in rethinking their business strategies, especially those who have embraced digital change. And while the move towards a more digital world transcends industries and sectors, it’s been especially accelerated within eCommerce. In fact, according to McKinsey & Company, eCommerce penetration experienced ten years’ growth during the pandemic, replacing unavailable physical channels during the height of the pandemic. Given these consideration is why Businesses Should Consider Selling Direct-to-Consumer.

With such change happening so quickly, there’s no wonder why organizations are eager to adjust their digital strategies – and fast.

Customers Are Up for Grabs

eCommerce was already an indispensable tool for so many pre-pandemic, growing rapidly over the years thanks to advances in technology, the ongoing digitalization of everyday life and changing customer preferences. But no one anticipated the remarkable growth in online selling that would be generated by the health crisis.

What’s even more impressive is that people who had used online channels for less than 25% of their purchases prior to the pandemic increased their online purchases by nearly 3.5X. Additionally, 75% of US consumers have tried different stores, websites, or brands during the COVID-19 crisis and 60% of those same consumers expect to integrate the new brands and stores in their post-COVID-19 lives.

That means, not only is there now the opportunity to reach the engaged and digitally savvy shoppers who have increased their online spending, but there is also a completely new group of potential buyers out there. The problem is how do you best capture the opportunity to engage with them?

Opportunity is Knocking with D2C Sales Channels

eCommerce is complex and constantly changing, making the competition for customers’ attention extremely difficult. In order to keep up, organizations need to make sure they’re optimizing every touchpoint along the buyer’s journey. For some organizations, this means adjusting channels and selling directly to their customers, or D2C.

Some of the most innovative and successful brands from the last decade have been borne from the shift to D2C. Warby Parker, Glossier, Casper all have carved out competitive places for themselves within their respective markets by going direct.

But it’s not only these “new” brands getting their slice of the D2C pie; Nike recently announced their plans to shift away from partner channels (including Amazon) to focus more on D2C, citing the profitability and brand ownership that comes with such a move.

While strategies like Nike’s may seem dramatic, it’s clear that in order to be successful, organizations need to be comfortable with disruption. There is the opportunity now more than ever to reach new segments of buyers and to take more ownership of the customer journey. While D2C may seem like a big endeavor, it’ll ultimately add value for your customers, and the more value you add, the more you’ll remain relevant and necessary to them.

Is D2C Right for Me?

Stepping into a new channel strategy is no easy task. It requires careful consideration of your business processes and systems, your potential customers, and the way people interact with your brand. But with the skyrocketing influence of eCommerce, there are some significant benefits to selling direct; here are just a few:

Own the customer experience: gain more control over the branding and messaging your customers see, nurture customer relationships directly
Use customer insights for innovation: gather and use customer data to improve products, develop new ones, and create more immersive and personalized customer experiences
Drive sales and loyalty: add new revenue streams, find new customer segments, and build loyalty with their current customers

It’s Not All or Nothing

By implementing a D2C strategy, online merchants can build a better understanding of their customers, keep their operational costs low, and take advantage of new revenue streams. However, it’s important to note that D2C doesn’t have to be your exclusive strategy.

If you take a look at the D2C players mentioned earlier, Warby Parker, Glossier, and Casper have all participated in physical retail as well as vendor partnerships. And of course, Nike still has diverse channels in which they use to reach customers. HarperCollins, the second-largest consumer book publisher in the world and a BlueBolt customer, sells their products through various channels, but use their online store to reach customers directly.

Many times, organizations focus on making the shift to digital rather than the reasoning behind it. Instead of emphasizing digital transformation, organizations looking to implement D2C need to understand that digital transformation is situational – sometimes digital fits into our lives, and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s the responsibility of merchants to take a holistic approach and understand how, when, and why their customers buy from them and then provide the appropriate paths to purchase, whether that’s digital, physical, or a combination of both.

The New Normal

D2C undoubtedly had a huge influence on some of the more profitable brands coming out of 2020. It enabled brands to move more nimbly to stay in touch with their customers directly and meet buyers where and how they needed them most.

Now in a post-pandemic world, it’s imperative that organizations focus on ways to improve or reimagine how they meet the needs of their customers now and into the future. Creating a D2C channel requires careful planning and consideration, a strong understanding of customers’ buying needs and expectations, and actionable data and insights. But the benefits can bring endless possibilities for growth.

In the battle for market share, only organizations that continue to be agile, resilient and responsive to change will come out on top. So, whether it’s exploring a new selling channel or rethinking your customers’ buying journey, just remember, the secret to getting ahead is getting started. What are you waiting for?

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Interested in learning more about selling D2C? Make sure to check out our white paper “Direct to Consumer: Everything B2B Companies need to know to sell D2C,” or feel free to contact us to speak with an expert today!

24th of February — 2022

10 Reasons to Choose Shopify Plus Over Magento for Enterprise eCommerce

Chuck Goldsworthy

A re you contemplating an upcoming software replatform and wondering which platform in the market best suits your ecommerce needs? As an award-winning, full-service agency known for our ecommerce chops, we have many reasons we recommend Shopify Plus over Magento.

When clients ask our advice on which ecommerce software would best meet their business needs, as well as deliver an engaging and compelling branded customer experience, we start by highlighting these 10 Reasons to Choose Shopify Plus Over Magento for Enterprise eCommerce:

1. Shopify Plus Total Cost of Ownership

While the subscription cost of Shopify Plus and Magento Commerce 2 appears close to the same monthly price, there are multiple factors to consider when it comes to the difference in the total cost of ownership between the two platforms. First, let’s consider the average implementation cost of Shopify Plus versus Magento. Traditional ecommerce platforms, such as Magento, take 8-12 months to implement. With Shopify Plus you can be selling in 3-4 months. Given the shorter project timeline, the professional service fees you pay your implementation partner, or your in-house technical team, are commensurately less. Second, since Magento is a PaaS software and must be hosted On Prem, the cost of IT infrastructure to host Magento onsite or paying a third party to host your solution in a cloud-based platform, like Microsoft Azure, must also be factored in. Last, companies using Magento report spending thousands of dollars monthly to simply maintain their solution and implement frequent upgrades, which we will touch on later in this blog.

2. Shopify Plus Decreases Time to Market

Because Shopify Plus features a robust common code base, Shopify Plus implementations are 2-3x faster to implement than Magento Commerce. Instead of developing a solution from scratch, Shopify Plus integration partners like BlueBolt are able to utilize this code base, as well as pull from a trusted third party app marketplace with plug and play capabilities. This enables clients to utilize more of the project time and budget customizing the Shopify Plus platform to meet their client’s unique digital business needs.

3. Shopify Plus is a SaaS Solution

SaaS software has revolutionized the MarTech industry – so much so that the last On Prem software platform was founded in 2007. IT and Marketing staff alike enjoy routine access to new, platform rich features without having to do tedious and expensive upgrades.

Shopify Plus enables clients to allocate their budget and staff bandwidth on improving their website instead of just maintaining it. On the other hand, Magento plans to release a total of six unique feature updates in 2022, all of which must be implemented by IT teams, decreasing available staff time and budgets for new projects.

4. Shopify Plus: A Checkout That is Always PCI Compliant

The great thing with the Shopify Plus checkout is that it is inherently PCI compliant, since their checkout is a SaaS solution hosted within the Shopify ecosystem. Additionally, Shopify’s checkout is engineered to minimize the need for customizations and ensuring PCI compliance.

On the other hand, a Magento Commerce solution needs PCI compliance hosted in your On Prem solution, leaving the onus on your company’s IT team. Furthermore, customizations to the checkout process are not safeguarded like they are in Shopify, making it easy for a PCI Compliant checkout to go off the rails.

5. Multiple Built in Sales Channels for a Broader Reach

Shopify Plus offers several built-in sales channels including popular online marketplaces such as Amazon, EBay and Walmart, as well as social media marketplaces including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. This makes running your enterprise ecommerce store user friendly, relevant and customizable. Merchants are able to integrate multiple channels, whether they are selling in an online storefront or one of several marketplaces, making it easier to manage the variety of ways today’s customers shop for products. Additionally, Shopify Plus offers shipping partnerships, enabling merchants to get discounted rates, increasing profit margins.

6. Extensive App Marketplace and Shopify Plus Leveraged Partner Support Network

Shopify’s Partner Marketplace is truly head and shoulders above all other ecommerce platforms. Third-party applications such as Yotpo, Klaviyo, and Recharge and many other third-party software vendors are easily implemented in a “plug and play” manner enabling MarTech teams to bring products to market faster than ever before. Additionally, Shopify Merchants have access to a robust network of Shopify Plus implementation providers, like BlueBolt, to help them customize the platform to bring their business to life digitally. While the Shopify Marketplace is incredibly large and powerful, it can also be overwhelming, which is a reason that Shopify maintains a robust network of implementation providers. Implementation partners, such as BlueBolt can help merchants make the best choices in configuring the platform and selecting add-ons.

7. Scaling is Automated

It is surprising the number of companies who are still on a software solution with an On Prem infrastructure, undergoing painstaking management of scalability whenever traffic peaks. The benefit with a SaaS platform like Shopify Plus is that running a SaaS software blessedly and automatically scales to ensure your customers find what they need in a quick and timely manner, without the worry of your site getting bogged down.

Does the idea of a Q4 sales rush or a marketing campaign make you start sweating at night? Thankfully sweet dreams are attainable with Shopify’s cloud hosted platform with integrated auto-scaling capabilities.

8. Enhanced User Experience

Unquestionably, Shopify Plus is far easier than Magento Commerce from an administrative management perspective. Shopify is set up to enable marketers to quickly and easily update both products and services on their website, as well as offer promotions on the go – without the help of the IT team.

Additionally, the plug and play functionality of third-party applications makes it easier than ever before to have Shopify’s enterprise platform meet all your unique business needs.

9. Shopify Plus Feature Releases Don’t Break Your Website

One of the best things Shopify is known for is releasing updates with new features that are very easy to use and take little to no development efforts to implement. Better yet? These feature releases don’t break your website – and your third-party applications. Meanwhile, colleagues of ours who work on Magento have reported that it internally costs tens of thousands of dollars to implement new features in Magento, as they often break their sites. Can you imagine being at the mercy of your software provider and not knowing when your site is going to go down in 2022?

10. More Bandwidth to Build Improvements Over Time

With traditional ecommerce platforms, like Magento Commerce, MarTech IT budgets are dedicated to frequent upgrades and feature releases to improve their customer experience. If you ecommerce platform is Magento Commerce, your team likely spends $10,000+ per month to maintain your website properties and integrate Magento’s feature releases, which is $120,000+ annually that could be spent on improving your customers’ experience with your brand and adding to your MarTech capabilities. Thankfully, our clients on Shopify Plus do not have to dedicate such precious resources because the are at the mercy of their ecommerce platform. Could you imagine having time and budget bandwidth to spend on optimizing your website you can develop real customer data on which to base your business decisions?

10 Reasons people choose Shopify Plus over Magento - 5

In summary, the Shopify Plus platform is a much better enterprise ecommerce software than Magento for the vast majority of ecommerce stores. As a highly technical and award-winning Shopify Plus partner, BlueBolt is adept at extending the Shopify Plus platform to meet all your unique business needs so that your products and services are available to your customers when they are ready to make their purchase. Please consider letting us help you implement Shopify Plus for all your digital needs so that together we can improve your customer experience, deliver on your KPIs and realize the ROI impact that is nearly impossible to find when running Magento.

3rd of November — 2021

Direct to Consumer: Everything B2B Companies Need to Know to Sell D2C

Jason Lichon

Even before the global pandemic, but certainly even more so now, every organization, regardless of industry, has had to find new ways of staying connected with and selling to their customers. Particularly, B2B Companies, such as manufacturers and distributors, have been catapulted into the race for digital transformation.

The future is definitively digital and no one wants to get left behind. In order to survive, now is the time for these companies to evolve how they sell and what experiences they deliver to attract and retain customers.

Developing a formula for success in the digital age requires organizations to embrace technology and tools to support their business. Thankfully, there is a variety of eCommerce platforms which can enable your team to achieve your goals and impact your bottom line. This white paper shares everything B2B professionals need to know about setting up a Direct to Consumer channel. If you have questions about creating a D2C Channel or other B2B Commerce projects, please contact our BlueBolt team.

27th of October — 2021

7 Infrastructure Challenges of Scaling an ECommerce Shop

Jason Lichon

In order to be successful in ecommerce, it’s imperative to scale and grow, but scaling quickly can pose many challenges. Without the right strategy and tools in place to tackle these, it can be hard to achieve the success you want for your organization.

Digital infrastructure can make or break your business, so it’s vital to select the right technology and partners. These will provide the foundation you need to build a successful operation that supports and nurtures development as you expand.

IT plays a critical role in driving digital initiatives which support scaling an organization. Download our white paper to learn the 7 Challenges that should be on every IT professional’s target list. If BlueBolt can help you address these challenges, please contact us or email us at hello@bluebolt.wpenginepowered.com.

20th of October — 2021

Show Me the Money: How Digital ECommerce Increases ROI for B2B Companies

Jason Lichon

D uring the past 18 months, B2B companies that were hesitant to dive into ecommerce suddenly found themselves in a world where traditional sales methods were upended overnight. Meanwhile competitors, who were already on the leading edge of implementing ecommerce, doubled down on their investments as they saw their work hit the jackpot.

Regardless of where a company is today, the internal conversation always comes back to trying to decide whether digital commerce will provide a return on investment. To set the stage for this article, consider these stats:

60% of B2B leaders surveyed believe their company does not generate enough data.
Only 32% agreed that they know how to use their data in a meaningful and actionable way.
When asked whether their company can track and calculate digital ROI effectively, only 27.7% said yes.

For business leaders unable to prove ROI, it becomes very challenging to make the case to implement a digital commerce project because the focus is on the cost of implementation, instead of the opportunities ecommerce holds. Fortunately, there are a myriad of persuasive arguments which will directly affect return on investment.

Uncovering ECommerce ROI Opportunities

The Power of Engaging Customers Digitally

Offering customers an online store where they can order your products isn’t exclusively about the customers themselves (even though we would like our customers to think otherwise). Having an online store gives brands a new channel where they can offer both loyal and new followers access to new and existing products, recommendations, promotions, real-time inventory, and additional shipping capabilities. In addition, it provides a platform where it’s far easier to experiment with new offerings before rolling them out company wide. Digital commerce also offers the ability to capture real time data on how customers interact with each one of these items, enabling business leaders to make data driven decisions, taking the guesswork out of how best to reach segments of your customer base.

Retain Existing Customers

In a world where customers are increasingly fickle and demanding, the old marketing adage “It’s cheaper to keep current customers than it is to attract new ones” has never been more relevant than it is today. Customers want to engage with the brands they love in a convenient and friction free manner. As much as some of us may miss it, gone are the days of calling Bob to place orders. Consumers expect to be able to access product information and perform research 24/7. Customers also expect convenience and flexibility when it comes to paying. Supporting multiple payment methods beyond standard credit cards (e.g. PayPal, Google Pay, Apple Pay, etc.) can reduce the possibility of customers halting a potential purchase at the very end of the process. End users also want to be able to order supplies in the field, check inventory and arrange pick up or delivery.

While it sounds demanding and difficult to implement digitally, these needs are now table stakes to retain customers. Sadly, if their preferred vendor doesn’t offer this, customers are highly likely to find a new supplier who will.

Attract New Customers

Almost all the same considerations apply when attempting to attract new customers. Like your existing customers, new potential customers expect convenience, friction-free access to information, flexibility in payment methods, as well as robust shipping options. Digital commerce also provides an excellent tie in with social media and promotions targeting new customers. These provide new vectors to have people visit your site and browse your products. In order to successfully execute, it’s imperative for every stakeholder in the buying process to be able to do their role digitally with your business. For example, CSRs will still play an important role, but they might now be responding to questions via online chat features on your site in addition to traditional support over the phone.

Increase Wallet Share

Since the dawn of time, every business owner and marketer has been trying to conceive ways to capture more of their customer market. Share of wallet is a reflection of how important your products are to your buyers. The higher the share of wallet, the more customers are dependent on your product to perform their jobs. Driving higher share of wallet is one of the most impactful growth opportunities for manufacturers. In addition to helping drive revenue and decreasing the average cost of goods created, higher share of wallet is the key to unlocking the retention brands dream about. With share of wallet being key to business prosperity, B2B and D2C (direct to consumer) ecommerce is imperative for companies who want to be able to compete for market share among today’s digitally savvy customers. As much as everyone is sick and tired of hearing about the Amazon Effect, it truly has changed the rules of customer engagement.

Offer a Direct to Consumer (D2C) Channel

The past 18 months have seen the vast acceleration of manufacturers offering their own Direct to Consumer channels. As of Q3 2021, selling Direct to Consumer is the most popular topic in B2B marketing. Brand manufacturers who have set up a D2C channel have seen explosive, double digit revenue growth in the past year. While selling D2C does have business considerations to consider such as how fulfillment and shipping will differ, the ROI in adding a new stream of revenue has been revolutionary for companies, especially for those hit with hard economic times during the pandemic.

Provide B2B and Distributor Channels

Each of your customer types, or personas, desire to have a message tailored to them. The great news is that B2B software platforms like Optimizely and Shopify Plus make it relatively easy for clients to set up different channels, or branded microsites, for each type of customer. With these capabilities, it makes it more streamlined than ever to serve your longstanding and loyal distributors, while being able to directly onboard new businesses as well. Providing customers everything they need and more to do their job efficiently and effectively will grow your customer pipeline and earn increased share of wallet.

Grow Revenue Per Product

For years, manufacturers have fought to get their distributors to merchandise and market their products in the absolute best way in the absolute best locations. Unlike any other time in history, marketers are now in the driver’s seat themselves thanks to B2B ecommerce. Armed with websites and customer portals, savvy marketers are now able to reach their customers 24/7 to have their products in front of their customers at the moment of their decision. Superior digital merchandising, smart product recommendations and refined customer catalogs are driving increased revenue per product, while also increasing customer satisfaction and retention.

Increase Customer Self-Service Activities

For years, manufacturers have been hesitant to enable customer self-service activities. Partly, this was due to not wanting to put people out of a job. However, as digital change has taken over the industry, roles have evolved. Now that customers are largely enabled to self-serve 24/7/365 through their customer portal, CSRs have matured from order takers to product experts. The immense value CSRs are now able to provide customers when they need help or product recommendations is unparalleled. With consumers being able to do all their research and purchasing activities in the portal and message their CSRs with questions, it provides a fast, feature rich, friction free and dependable purchasing process. Additionally, internal streamlining of CSR duties can enable companies to reduce their personnel expense and decrease overhead.

Decrease Cost Per Customer Acquisition

Calculating cost per customer or cost per acquisition could be an entire white paper in and of itself. However, the one consistent theme to all of the steps to calculate this cost is knowing your data. It’s critical to know where your customers are coming from, why they’re coming to your website, which products they’re interested in, how long it takes them to complete an order and what obstacles they run into. Analyzing all this data empowers your team to make adjustments, which in turn will decrease the cost per customer over time.

Expand Product Gross Margin

When calculating the ROI of an ecommerce solution, one of the most often overlooked sources of ROI is in the higher product gross margins that come from increased sales. Savings opportunities include buying materials used to make items at a reduced cost, calculating marketing costs across more merchandise and spreading overhead out across larger commodity quantities. When these savings are taken into consideration, it’s clear how quickly boosting your product gross margins can have a vast impact on your profitability, making a great case for ecommerce.

The Ultimate Result? Boosting the Company’s Market Capitalization

For readers who may not understand market capitalization – It is the total value of all of a company’s shares of stock and is calculated by multiplying the number of stock shares outstanding by the current share price. For example, if a company has issued 1 million shares and its share price is $50, its market cap is $50 million. Shares outstanding includes all shares — those available to the public and restricted shares available to and held by specific groups. Market cap allows investors to size up a company based on how valuable the public perceives it to be. The higher the value, the “bigger” and “less risky” the company. For C-Level executives, increasing market capitalization is incredibly rewarding. Not only does it signify the company has been doing a great job, but it provides the opportunity to attract investors to help obtain cash for further growth initiatives.

In summary, there are a multitude of ways in which implementing a better ecommerce infrastructure can provide ROI for your company. BlueBolt helps manufacturers and distributors alike modernize their ecommerce offerings with platform recommendations and implementation, connecting legacy systems and integrating third party applications to create a sleek and efficient framework. The result is a user-friendly interface for customers which enables them to self-serve 24/7, while streamlining internal processes. The impact is a return on investment in many areas across the business which any discerning business leader will be excited to realize.

30th of March — 2021

Pacifico Brews Up New Digital Destination Crafted by BlueBolt

Chris Risner

T he updated brand site delivers content, messaging and product information to support customer engagement throughout the buying journey.

Chicago – March 30, 2021 – BlueBolt, Inc., the leading full-service digital commerce, content, and enterprise search agency, today announced that they completed the web development and launch of an updated brand site for Pacifico Clara, a member of Constellation Brands, a leading international producer and marketer of beer, wine and spirits with operations in the U.S., Mexico, New Zealand, and Italy.

Launched on Shopify Plus with a mobile-first approach, DiscoverPacifico.com reflects the brand’s continued investment in digital capabilities and their commitment to meeting their target audience – multicultural Millenials and Generation Z of legal drinking age – where and how they consume content.

Built in collaboration with Upshot Agency, the site complements Pacifico’s brand narrative and promotes the values and interests of their target customers through featured sections for their Pacifico Preserves social initiative and for the brand’s sponsored athletes, among other instances of lifestyle content. It also links to their merchandise site for branded products and to their partner sites, enabling a seamless experience for US-based consumers to buy Pacifico directly from Drizly and Instacart.

With Shopify Plus, DiscoverPacifico.com is now more nimble than ever before, transforming what used to be cumbersome and costly tasks and replacing them with easy-to-manage workflows that support improved site experiences. Reorganized wireframes enable the Pacifico team to focus on creating and updating content more efficiently in order to support both their customers’ buying decisions and enhance corporate marketing initiatives such as social campaigns, product launches, and sweepstakes.

“Today’s always-on, always-connected consumers are not confined to any single channel, whether online or off,” said Jason Lichon, President & Co-Founder at BlueBolt. “With their new and improved Shopify Plus site, Pacifico and Constellation Brands are taking a dynamic approach to their digital transformation and can holistically support their customers across all touchpoints.”

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About Constellation Brands
Constellation Brands is an international producer and marketer of beer, wine and spirits with operations in the U.S., Mexico, New Zealand, and Italy. Constellation is the third-largest beer company in the U.S. and a leading, higher-end wine and spirits company in the U.S. market. Constellation’s brand portfolio includes Corona Extra, Corona Light, Corona Premier, Modelo Especial, Modelo Negra, Pacifico, the Robert Mondavi brand family, Kim Crawford, Meiomi, The Prisoner brand family, SVEDKA Vodka, Casa Noble Tequila, and High West Whiskey. 

About BlueBolt
BlueBolt, Inc. is a full-service digital commerce, content, and enterprise search agency, focused on delivering exceptional B2B & B2C online experiences for leading manufacturers, distributors, and retailers. By combining our deep expertise in Digital Strategy, User Experience Design, Enterprise Search, Development, and Managed Support, we partner with our clients to ensure successful outcomes that drive user adoption and increase revenue.

Since 2005, BlueBolt has had the privilege of working with some truly amazing clients including: SRAM, HockeyShot, Boost Mobile, DISH Network, and many others. We partner with the leading platforms, including Optimizely, Shopify Plus and BigCommerce to implement solutions that make our customers’ digital goals a reality. Learn more at www.blueboltsolutions.com.

18th of March — 2021

HockeyShot Scores Big with New and Improved eCommerce Site by BlueBolt

Jason Lichon

S ince launching on the Shopify platform, HockeyShot has seen increases of 29% in conversions and 27% in online revenue year over year.

Chicago, IL – March 18, 2021 – BlueBolt, Inc., the leading full-service Digital Commerce, Content, and Enterprise Search agency, today announced that they have launched a new Shopify Plus site for HockeyShot, the largest online specialty retailer of hockey training equipment worldwide. The new site comes after the HockeyShot team experienced a failed migration to Magento 2 before engaging with BlueBolt.

After experiencing numerous site performance and stability issues along with a drop in online sales after migrating to Magento 2, HockeyShot chose to replatform to Shopify Plus. Through implementation, creative design, user experience, and digital marketing services, BlueBolt has enabled the HockeyShot team to plan and execute strategies for long-term success. With experience in digital solutions for global expansion and operational improvements, BlueBolt has also helped the HockeyShot team navigate their overall global online and offline commerce workflows, including implementing and servicing sites for three different geographies – Canada, Europe, and the United States.

“At HockeyShot, we pride ourselves on providing unparalleled world class customer experience. It was devastating to our business and to our team members when we weren’t able to deliver on that promise due to flaws in our previous platform,” said Matt Menard, Director, E-Commerce & Consumer Experience at HockeyShot. “Working with BlueBolt to implement our new Shopify Plus site has helped us move beyond our disappointment and deliver a truly innovative and customized digital experience that our customers expect and deserve.”

With Shopify Plus and BlueBolt, HockeyShot no longer worries about server and performance issues, constant patching and bug fixes, or ballooning service costs to keep their site up and running. Since launch, HockeyShot has seen increases of 29% in conversions and 27% in online revenue year over year. Because of the true SaaS nature of Shopify, the HockeyShot team can now focus on seamlessly creating better customer experiences to market and sell their outstanding products.

“As a trusted partner, it is our core purpose and focus to empower our clients to meet and exceed their digital transformation goals,” said Jason Lichon, President & Co-Founder at BlueBolt. “We are thrilled to have been able to use our expertise in technology, marketing, and creative design to tailor a solution that fit the needs of HockeyShot and enable them to get back on track.”

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About HockeyShot
HockeyShot Inc. is the largest online specialty retailer of hockey training equipment worldwide. Their mission is to revolutionize hockey skills around the world by offering fun, innovative and accessible tools. HockeyShot is focused on helping hockey players reach their potential with training aids and best-in-class training content; built through partnerships with the top professional athletes, coaches, and community leaders in the game. The future of hockey starts now.

Since 2005, BlueBolt has had the privilege of working with some truly amazing clients including: SRAM, HockeyShot, Boost Mobile, DISH Network, and many others. We partner with the leading platforms, including, Optimizely, Shopify Plus and Big Commerce to implement solutions that make our customers’ digital goals a reality. Learn more at www.blueboltsolutions.com.

4th of August — 2020

Optimizing the B2B Digital Experience: Meeting Your Customers through Live Chat

Jason Lichon

O nce overlooked in B2B digital strategies, optimized customer experiences are a must have for companies looking to convert and engage with customers in today’s world.

With current COVID-19 restrictions on meeting in person, it’s even more important now than ever for B2B organizations to examine how they interact and engage with customers. Innovation in this time of crisis and beyond will enable you to provide more meaningful and personalized touchpoints in the buyer’s journey and help your business grow.

But don’t just take my word for it.

In their recent B2B Digital Experience Report, Optimizely gathered insights from 600 global B2B decision makers about digital experience tactics and technology. They inquired about everything from budgets, to Amazon, to AI. The most encompassing takeaway from the report is that in order to win in today’s digital economy, B2B businesses must focus on the customer by understanding who they are and what they need, and then provide the appropriate, personalized solutions to address those needs.

Though focusing on the customer may seem obvious, the customer journey can be complex, especially for B2B organizations. There are many moving parts to consider, and while making decisions can seem overwhelming, the biggest opportunity for businesses is to invest in products and services that better serve the customer throughout the buying lifecycle and beyond. It’s not a one-size-fits all type of process and instead should involve looking at problems from many different angles and finding the right solutions that truly deliver better customer experiences.

According to Optimizely’s report, the majority of B2B organizations (54%) define their customer relationships as strained, developing or non-existent. Clearly there’s a huge opportunity to improve in this area. B2B organizations should specifically look to connect with their customers where and when it makes most sense. One simple and effective solution is live chat.

Live chat leads to personalized digital experiences

Data from the Optimizely report shows that 60% of B2B leaders say that the top way that they want to learn about a fellow B2B company is through their website. Thirty seven percent of these same leaders also say live chat is the website feature/functionality they are most likely to adapt in the next 12 months. Combine these two points, and you’ve got an interesting opportunity. If the majority of people prefer accessing information about a company through that company’s website, and that website has a live chat solution implemented, then live chat can be a viable tool to engage with website visitors and improve customer experiences.

B2B interactions often deal with quite a lot of complexity – customer-specific pricing, tight delivery schedules, endless numbers of SKU’s – and organizations need to be prepared to provide immediate and personal attention when their customers need it. Live chat is a powerful and convenient tool when it comes to assisting customers in real time.

Knowing that they are talking to a real person, not a bot, gives customers the confidence that their issues are being handled quickly and efficiently. Live chat also enables your reps to reach customers in unique and engaging ways, including video and file sharing – something that obviously cannot be supported through a typical phone call, email, or form submission. Beyond the front-end, user specific advantages, live chat is also an effective tool in gathering and recording data that can be used to improve customer experience across the whole of your organization, not just digitally. Finally, live chat can be personalized so that returning customers are addressed individually and previous interactions are recorded; after all, if the customer has interacted with you before, wouldn’t it make sense that you know who they are the next time you speak? This not only will save time but will also make your customers feel valued.

The big picture of personalization.

It’s more common now that most B2B companies have gone through at least some type of digital transformation. According to Optimizely’s report, most leaders say they have a digital foundation to work with, but many are looking for more to get the job done. This points to the need for organizations to take a holistic approach to enhancing customer experiences.

Of course, perfecting the digital experience is an ever-evolving process that encompasses more than just keeping up with competitors or the expectations of your customers; it’s about truly understanding your customers and using that data to deliver more personalized experiences to achieve digital success. One way to achieve this on the most basic of levels is through live chat, which when used correctly, can help support and manage better customer relationships, increase revenue, and improve customer loyalty.

Live chat, combined with other customer experience tools, is the foundation from which organizations can ensure they are gathering the right data and providing the right solutions so customers remain central to the business.

If we can be of help in anyway, please connect with us as we are always happy to help.

Note: The original version of this article was posted by Paul Demery on DigitalCommerce360.com.

23rd of June — 2020

SRAM Selects BlueBolt to Tune Up Its Digital Presence

Chris Risner

B lueBolt launches an innovative digital commerce experience for SRAM, the preeminent manufacturer of state-of-the-art bicycle components.

Chicago, IL – June 23, 2020 – BlueBolt, Inc., an award winning digital agency, today announced that it helped launch an innovative digital commerce experience for SRAM, the preeminent manufacturer of state-of-the-art bicycle components. BlueBolt provided development and design services for their site: www.sram.com, with Quarq and Zipp launched as SRAM brands going Direct to Consumer.

“While SRAM had worked with BlueBolt previously to digitally enable their robust network of customers, distributors, and retail partners through an Optimizely, formerly Episerver, based business portal, we were now looking to host all our brands on one consumer-facing platform and introduce a more consistent consumer journey.” said Dragana Pajovic, Director of E-Commerce at SRAM. “With our new Quarq and Zipp sites, we have introduced a multi-brand cart and we can now own our brand experience from start to finish – it’s been an exciting step in our digital transformation.”

With the launch of the new sites, SRAM’s products are showcased in an elevated user experience, and early performance shows positive results. Built on the Optimizely Commerce platform, and leveraging the previously implemented B2B site and infrastructure, the B2C site rollouts included innovative functionality and key integrations with several third-party vendors. Some notable features include:

A redesigned site experience on desktop and mobile to enable a frictionless B2C buyer’s journey across the site, including a shared shopping cart across brands.
A custom configurator specific to the Quarq product site, which enables a user to build their chosen product directly on the product detail page. This is a unique customization within Episerver that takes any number of SKU’s and drills down options based on the buyer’s selections, to deliver one final finished product and price.
Refreshed brand experiences for Quarq and Zipp, with the addition of the “My Account” section that enables users to store their information, access order history, and create wish lists, resulting in more meaningful customer touchpoints and encouraging brand loyalty across all of SRAM’s brands.

“We’re extremely proud to have designed and developed a beautiful site that truly demonstrates the excellence of the SRAM brand,” said Dave Risner, CEO at BlueBolt. “This new site is not just a place to purchase SRAM’s world class products; it’s a destination for cycling enthusiasts from all over to connect with the brand on a deeper level and immerse themselves in the lifestyle that SRAM represents.”

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About SRAM

SRAM® is a manufacturer of innovative bicycle components that was founded in Chicago, Illinois, in September 1987, with the invention of its first product, Grip Shift®. Throughout its 31-year history, SRAM has focused on its product development and innovation expertise in all bicycling disciplines. SRAM has also acquired some of cycling’s most exciting brands. With 3000-plus employees working in offices and manufacturing facilities in 15 countries, SRAM and its brands – RockShox®, TRUVATIV®, Zipp® and Quarq® – comprise the second largest manufacturer of bike components in the world.

About BlueBolt

BlueBolt, Inc. is a full-service digital commerce, content, and enterprise search agency, focused on delivering exceptional B2B & B2C online experiences for leading manufacturers, distributors, and retailers. By combining our deep expertise in Digital Strategy, User Experience Design, Enterprise Search, Development, and Managed Support, we partner with our clients to ensure successful outcomes that drive user adoption and increase revenue.

Since 2005, BlueBolt has had the privilege of working with some truly amazing clients including: SRAM, Rather Outdoors, Indian Motorcycle, DISH Network, and many others. We partner with the leading platforms, including, Optimizely, Shopify Plus and BigCommerce to implement solutions that make our customers’ digital goals a reality. Learn more at www.blueboltsolutions.com.

15th of June — 2020

SMS Marketing in the Time of COVID

Jason Lichon

T he best consumer experiences are the ones that meet buyers consistently throughout all touchpoints of the customer journey.

Now, more than ever, mobile experiences are having a huge impact on how people shop. Consider the following data from the eCommerce marketing platform, Yotpo or Okendo.

During the pandemic, 57% of consumers are shopping online more than usual
65% of consumers prefer to shop directly from their phone
There’s been a 30% increase in time spent on mobile phones since the COVID-19 pandemic began

Delivery personnel deliver goods to customers during the Covid-19 virus epidemic around the world,Therefore must wear a mask to prevent the spread of the disease, Express delivery . Quarantine

With such a big window of opportunity to reach your customers through mobile, short message service (SMS) marketing can be a valuable tactic. The average person already spends more than 4 hours a day on a mobile device and checks their phone more than 150 times in that same span (Yotpo). By using SMS marketing to send your customers the right mobile messages at the right time, you’ll be able to capitalize on this channel by not only converting browsers into buyers now, but also by building meaningful relationships and encouraging customer loyalty well into the future.

Here are just a few scenarios where SMS marketing can move the needle with your customers:

Using messaging automation, you can trigger perfectly timed, personalized messages to encourage conversions. For instance, if a buyer abandons items in a cart, sending an SMS reminder that they’ve forgotten something can inspire them to go back and buy
Segment out audiences to hyper-target buyers based on advanced data like past behaviors and transactions
Have a new product or campaign launch? Use SMS to easily and quickly notify customers instead of getting lost in a sea of other marketing emails in their inboxes. After all, SMS has a 6-8x higher engagement rate than email with an average open rate of a whopping 98%
Provide more engaging and personalized customer service through managed chats and helpdesk integrations

To learn more about these features and how to create a winning SMS marketing strategy for your brand, check out Yotpo’s Complete Guide to Generating Fast ROI With SMS Marketing. The guide includes best practices for more personalized mobile experiences and real-life examples from a variety of brands finding success through SMS marketing.

In a time when customers crave highly targeted mobile experiences more than ever, brands need to deliver. It’s clear that shoppers love to use mobile, and I think they’d love for you to as well.

10th of June — 2020

The Clock is Ticking: What Merchants Should Consider When Migrating from Magento 1

Chris Risner

J une 30, 2020 is the end of life for Magento 1, both Commerce and Open Source. It’s been a long time coming since the news of its end was first announced in November 2015. Yet, even just days before the deadline, some merchants may still be trying to wrap their heads around what to do. If you’re one of them, here’s some information that might help.

Remain Calm, but Don’t Wait!

Before any remaining Magento 1 merchants start to completely panic, please know that the end of Magento 1 will not serve as a light-switch that shuts off your online store as soon as July rolls around. Instead, it means that your store will still exist, but any support previously provided by Magento, like security patches or updates, will not be provided.

Merchants will be solely responsible for any security breaches and their Magento 1 sites will fall out of compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS). And while there are companies out there offering solutions and support for Magento 1 merchants after June 30, the truth is, the ability to remain competitive and keep up with customer expectations will diminish significantly the longer you wait to make a move. So even though your store will remain on, it’s in your best interest and the interests of your customers to migrate platforms.

At a time when many businesses across all industries are trying to rein in spending to weather the current global crises, it may seem risky to invest in a platform migration for your online store – even we can admit the costs and timelines can sometimes seem daunting!

However, we cannot stress enough how important it is for merchants to take action now. By doing so, you will be better prepared for success down the line, even well after things have settled. Your customers will still be shopping and are still expecting a certain level of service and security from your store, regardless of outside forces. The rewards of pursuing a migration now far outweigh the risks of staying with Magento 1.

Options for Migrating from Magento 1

While migrating to Magento 2 is an option for all merchants, it won’t be any less effort to implement a completely new platform, since there is no simple upgrade path. Plus, the documented issues and ongoing expenses with Magento did not evaporate with M2 – they have continued on. Keeping all this in mind, we encourage you to take a look at commerce platforms available to you, including Shopify, Optimizely, BigCommerce and others. Whether your business is B2C, B2B, or both, the various platforms offer robust and unique solutions for merchants of all kinds. If you’re not sure of where to start, we can help.

BlueBolt’s expert strategists and developers have helped hundreds of clients over the years by providing best practices and information to make decisions on what’s best for each individual client’s business. We work to thoroughly understand your business and requirements, and make recommendations based on what specific needs your business has. As you embark on the next step in your digital transformation journey, let us help you take control of your future and make decisions that will enable you to reach your goals – contact us today!

1st of April — 2020

Bluebolt Earns Gold-Level Partnership With Optimizely

Jason Lichon

T o earn this distinction, BlueBolt has satisfied high sales, training, certification and specialization requirements with Optimizely.

[CHICAGO, IL] April 1, 2020 – BlueBolt, Inc., a commerce-focused Digital Agency that enables retailers, manufacturers and distributors to support their customers & sales teams through innovative digital solutions, today announced it has been certified as a Gold Partner of Optimizely, formerly Episerver.

BlueBolt completed a thorough certification process, including Optimizely Education training, certifying seven Optimizely Developers, and achieving the Optimizely CMS & Commerce Specializations, to earn Gold Partner status in Optimizely’s Partner Success Program and to join as a qualified, value-add seller of Optimizely Customer-Centric Digital Experience Platform™. As a Gold Partner, BlueBolt brings proven competency, documented delivery expertise, established product expertise, and certified resources and specializations to mutual customers. BlueBolt extends the value of the Optimizely platform to organizations across North America by focusing on delivering best-in-class global digital commerce experiences to manufacturers, distributors, and retailers for both B2C & B2B transactions.

Optimizely Customer-Centric Digital Experience Platform is a Leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms. Optimizely boasts an independently proven 443 percent return on investment in three years and a payback period of less than six months. Along with low total cost of ownership, Optimizely reduces time spent on content and product management updates, offers savings over on-premise solutions, increases revenue through AI-based personalization, and improves customer satisfaction scores due to more contextual experiences.

“Our team is committed to empowering our clients to take charge of their digital transformation goals and create beautiful, one-of-a-kind commerce experiences that excite and please their customers,” says David Risner, CEO at BlueBolt. “As a Gold Partner of Optimizely, we can better deliver value and innovation to our clients, and we take great pride in that.”

With a network of more than 900 partner companies in 30 countries, Optimizely seeks to connect with qualified partners whose firm possesses a wealth of experience, team members with a creative outlook, global reach, and a collective eye toward future opportunities to ensure mutual customers are successful in the short and long term.

“Both BlueBolt and Optimizely are experiencing incredible growth by helping customers get closer to their customer, grow their brand and uncover new revenue opportunities,” said Dominic Citino, VP of worldwide partnerships at Optimizely. “BlueBolt is accelerating the pace at which businesses are able to provide customer-centric digital experiences and their Gold-level status is a testament to that commitment.”

About BlueBolt, Inc.

Since 2005, BlueBolt has had the privilege of working with some truly amazing clients including: SRAM, Restek, Indian Motorcycle, DISH Network, and many others. We partner with industry leaders like Optimizely to implement the right technology solutions that drive innovation and make our customers’ digital goals a reality. Learn more at www.blueboltsolutions.com.

20th of January — 2020

Blended Content & Commerce: The peanut butter and jelly of digital commerce

Jason Lichon

ON DEMAND WEBINAR

Enjoy the replay of this educational session from BlueBolt and Optimizely (formerly Episerver), “Blended Content and Commerce – The Peanut Butter and Jelly of Digital Commerce.” Our experts discuss the importance and benefits of combining content with commerce, explain the maturity levels that frame organizational strategies, review best practices and show real world examples, and give actionable insights to implement within your own business straight away.

Developing robust content and commerce strategies takes effort, but the results will elevate your brand and help you take a bite out the competition. Satisfy your hunger for success by watching this informative session.

6th of December — 2016

What to Look for When Evaluating an Enterprise Search Solution – Key Criteria

Chris Risner

C hoosing an enterprise search solution can be daunting and time-consuming. There are many factors to consider and it can be very confusing

This blog post is meant to help guide that decision by providing the key criteria for evaluating the best enterprise search solution. These criteria include vision, various technology considerations, licensing model(s), frequency of updates/support, employee resource(s) needed, flexibility, and security.

Base Technology and Fit

The first area to understand is to dig into the base or underlying technology of the solution. This includes the following areas:

What technology stack is the search solution built on, and what programming languages would be used to implement and extend it? Is this the same as the technology used within your organization?
Where is data stored? What technology used for storing data?
Is any or all part of the solution open source? Or is it completely proprietary? Some mix of the two?
Does it fit and work within the Content Management Solution or the application that will be exposing the search?
What parts of the solution are essentially “off limits” vs. what is customizable if necessary
What skills are necessary to do customization?

Evaluating the base technology behind the solution is important to understand how much it will take to run and support the solution, including what would happen if the organization decides to “go it alone” and support the solution with internal resources. While open source solutions could provide licensing advantages (more on licensing below) and also possibly provide access to the source code (if necessary), it also could lead to support considerations that an organization is not ready for. For instance, choosing a entirely open source option without a real business behind it and then building a solution in-house would mean that the organization is signing up to be a software developer that is essentially competing with the existing enterprise search software vendors out there already. This is still possible and may be the right decision in some situations, presumably in circumstances that cause for extreme customization anyway. But, the constant software development process, testing, implementation, and support necessary to keep up with the changes in the market may not make sense for organizations that just want a product and solution that works and is a truly cloud-based environment (which would be difficult to make happen in-house as well). Choosing a solution that meets the organization’s current technology stack is an important consideration.

Connectors

Connectors are pre-built code to integrate systems together. Many are built for such things as Content Management Systems and CRM systems, but they could be any environment that the enterprise search solution provider felt was necessary or would provide them a marketing advantage. Commercial applications typically would have a stronger eye toward marketing and would naturally provide more of connectors, while open source solutions would tend to give the tools necessary for developers to create their own connectors. These connectors need to be evaluated according to the following questions to assess the appropriateness:

How many connectors are currently available?
Are the necessary connectors available for the organization’s immediate needs? What about for growth?
If a particular connector is not available, is it possible to create a custom connector? How difficult is this process?
How deep do the connectors go? Do they provide the right level of integration to be effective or just brush the surface to check a marketing box off that they have the connector? If incomplete in some way, how difficult is it to shore it up to get what is needed?
Does the provider seem dedicated to continual development of additional connectors?

Vision and Architecture Philosophy

Understanding what the enterprise search solution was created for and where it is headed in the future is important. Some solutions were created and optimized for specific systems, applications, or use cases such as CRM or customer service or knowledge bases. While it may not be important to know how a particular vendor is going to handle predictive analytics or machine learning in detail, for instance, it might be important to an organization to consider a particular solution where the provider is working on artificial intelligence capabilities for automating taxonomy management. This could show show that the vendor is thinking about the future and has the same vision of where the organization wants to go.

Other considerations of vision and philosophy include how data is extracted from the source systems. Then how the search engine solution processes that data and merges data from all of the sources together, commonly called federation. It is important to understand how data is joined from different data sources and normalized to create a common structure, such as one data source having full name in one field while another source has first and last name in different fields. There are many ways to do this, and being on the same page is critical. In addition, the way that a system handles taxonomy is important. Taxonomy is the categorization capabilities or methods of creating context to the data and structuring the data such including creating filters, facets, and other user interface features. All of these different areas can affect the evaluation of a search engine solution.

Scalability

Most search engines today need to be able to handle very large databases and index sizeable quantities of data, sometimes into the millions and even billions of records. This also means the system needs to be built in order to provide response times to queries in an efficient manner With the amount of data that needs to be processed, the search engine solution needs to process data in order to not frustrate users that are accustomed to Google-like response times. Areas to consider under scalability include the following:

Number of data sources
Number of records within each data source? What is the expected growth of data?
Frequency of updates and how much of the data needs to be updated with each update
How many queries will be performed? What is the expected growth?

Indexing

Indexing is the method for gathering the data. It describes whether (and how) a crawler is used, how often data is captured (time between indexes), how fast the actual indexing process takes, and whether some or all fields need secondary processing for creating metadata in order to use the data. All of these are important to consider because if the system is down while the indexing occurs because of how long the process takes or the way that the system is built. If the system is unavailable during this time or slow from the user’s perspective, it is a concern. It is also an issue if the data is very old (stale) because of the time between indexing. Often the processing can be handled offline with a separate server such as a staging server and and intelligent means of data capture can be maintained such as only getting the data has changed rather than the entire data set from every data source. All of these architecture decisions should be evaluated when making a selection of a search engine solution.

Search Features and User Experience

The core query functionality of the system is critical to look at. At this point within the search industry, there are quite a few search features that should be expected in a modern search solution. The features and functionality that should be in most systems including sorting, filtering, faceting, stemming, keyword searches, boolean searches, the use of wildcards, field searches, range searches, synonyms, “did you mean” type features, auto-suggesting and auto completion. If any of these are missing, it should be cause for concern.

The search solution needs to also provide flexibility to allow for providing the means to create a world-class user interface and experience. In many ways, the user experience is just as important, or more important, than the back-end functionality. The system should have the ability to create modern user interface components such as responsive designs (mobile), filters, facets, keyword highlighting, etc. Establishing the user interface can be expensive and care should be taken to make sure to understand how easy it is to make changes if the requirements change.

Search Relevancy

Search relevancy is the process for determining which search results end up at the top of any particular results list based on how relevant the data is to the search that was performed. Search relevancy is a constant process of optimization of the search algorithm to the needs of the individual system and the ability of the system to determine the user intent. Indexing and architecture can heavily influence search relevancy and how data is processed. The search engine solution should be graded on how easy and flexible it can be tuned to the needs of the organization, how search scoring is handled and its accuracy and ability to tweak, as well as the system’s ability to boost relevancy either manually by an administrator or by additional criteria that is added to the algorithm.

Measurement of search relevance should include aggregation and analysis of search logs, keyword information, results logs, click information, abandon statistics, and possibly even conversion statistics if they are available, particularly if they can be tracked back to the search data. All of this information will help get a more clear picture of the user’s needs and intent with the goal of continual tuning. Eventually, it could lead to personalization of each search that is perform to each individual user that is performing the search. In order to get to this ultimate goal of complete understanding of the user and their intent, it is appropriate to use big data techniques and tools, machine learning methodologies and technologies, as well as predictive analytics to help improve the relevancy scores and continual improvement of the search results.

Licensing Models and Cost

How the license for the solutions works and pricing works is an important criteria in deciding on the right application for an organization. Licensing can be very complex and have many components. These components may not be linear either, with potential hidden costs that aren’t immediately obvious. For instance, although a purely open source solution could look inexpensive with no direct license expense, the on-going support and additional development expense could end up being cost-prohibitive, particularly if the organization doesn’t have the skills to manage an open source solution properly. Some questions to ask on pricing include the following:

Is the solution SaaS? On-premise? Hybrid?
If on-premise, how would hosting be handled? Is there a flat fee or tiered pricing? Is there maintenance costs? Is the license price contingent upon the number of servers or processors?
If SaaS or some type of hybrid is there a base cost? Is it per month? Is there some additional volume-based expense per month (most commonly based on the number of queries)? Is there additional pricing based per person?
How is support handled? Is this an extra expense? Are there maintenance expense for additional years?
How is training handled? What training expenses are necessary?

Security and Authentication

Protection of data continues to be one of the biggest challenges for modern organizations. Sensitive and proprietary documents needed to be secured from individuals and systems that should not have access. Some areas to consider on security include the following:

How is authorization provided?
Is a single sign-on available?
Can the system provide document-level security?
What other security capabilities does the system provide?

Administration and Skills Necessary

Modern enterprise search solutions provide reporting and administrative capabilities to employees in order to understand more about how the system is operating and allowing optimization of search results. An evaluation of the reporting as well as gaining some understanding of what options are available to tune the results is necessary to understand the breadth of the solution. Some considerations for administration include:

Are there tools for synonyms? Is there an administrative interface to manage synonyms?
How are misspellings handled? Is there an automated system to detect misspellings?
What skills or employees are necessary to administer the system?
Is there a way to boost favored content within the search results?

Conclusion

While selecting a enterprise search solution can be complex and take quite a bit of time, using a methodical process of evaluation can ensure that the right decisions can be made. Rushing the decision for such an important portion of an enterprise network could cause problems and issues with the customer experience for years. On the other hand, choosing the proper solution could provide the right technology to provide accurate access to the information and a superior user experience.

If our team can help recommend the best enterprise search solution for you, please connect with us.

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