Start Selling Online With the Shopping Cart

You want to shop for a week’s supply at Wal-Mart and as you enter the store, you notice that all the shopping carts are gone. How would you feel? Of course, you’d feel like not shopping at all and switch to other stores where shopping carts are available. The same applies for online shoppers who wanted to make a more organized and one-way shopping, most especially if they’d purchase multiple items. A customer would always want it the easy way out and one way of letting them shop the easy way is through online shopping carts.

Shopping cart softwares have improved a lot as years passed and as e-commerce boomed to overcome a lot of tangible business out in the business world. Having an Online Shopping Cart Software is important and will reap you a lot of benefits both in short term and in the long run. Through a shopping cart, you would be able to cater the best shopping experience to your online customers like they’re in a virtual shopping mall picking up what they want and stashing it inside the cart for the cashier to bill them out.

Free vs Paid Shopping Carts

There are a lot of shopping cart softwares available; most of them are pay-to-use while some few are for free. Free shopping cart softwares may be very tempting to avail of because they are absolutely free of charge. Take note, however, that these free shopping cart softwares may be a good option while starting a business, when the customers are not that overwhelming yet. But try to anticipate when your business made it into the main stream. Surely, the free shopping cart software won’t be able to handle the demands of multiple customers in the long run. As compared with paid shopping carts, free carts are less stable and have less customer support available for technical difficulties.

Multi-Tasking Carts

There are available shopping cart softwares which come in a package making them more versatile than ever. Shopping cart packages allow for the users to perform multiple tasks at once.

Suggestive carts- Aside from the usual shopping cart where all the items to be purchased are stored temporarily, current carts also generate information about the customer’s history of previous purchases and offers them similar products which could catch their interests- this is through the power of cookies which collect previous information of users and dig them up for future use.

Search Tool- Search tool is also integrated in some shopping carts so shoppers won’t need to scour over the list of items. They can also sort these items out so that they can compare the prices, and all other essential information.

Cross Selling- Some carts can also be designed to do cross-selling such that there would be Hot Listed Items on a part of the cart which could raise the interest of a customer.

Computations of Fees- One important feature of a shopping cart is to make the job of the online seller easier so that before it reaches the Internet Merchant Account service, everything is already ironed out and ready for billing. Computation of taxes, shipping costs, discount rates and all other necessary calculations can be done by a shopping cart and this helps a lot in making the transaction smoother and more convenient.

Reporting- A shopping carts task doesn’t just end once the customer leaves the site and billed out by the IMA. The cart should also display reports to the online seller about the hottest items on the list, the overall sale for a certain time, the information about the traffic, the type of customers and all essential information necessary to improve the store.

Customizability of Design

The flexibility of the shopping carts is important so that it could be well adapted and customized according to the design or layout of the online store for which it is designed to work. By this feature, you can easily change the look of your store if it starts out to feel dull and monotonous. You should also see to it that the interface is user-friendly so that those persons with no idea about HTML or web designing can easily tweak the design up. There are also some shopping cart software providers who can customize the carts for you- all you need is to give them a logo of your store or tell them how you want those shopping carts to look like.

Shopping carts are very vital in the functioning of an ecommerce website. It gives heaps of benefits for both the seller and the customer. For this reason, be very careful and strategic in choosing the right shopping cart for your store. Just bear in mind those tips and points which should be looked into and surely, you’ll get the best shopping cart service suited for your business.

Retail Manager Jobs – Helpful Dos and Don’ts of Applying for Jobs

Are you looking for retail management jobs? If so, keep reading on before you start your job search. Below, you’ll find a number of helpful dos and don’ts that can assist you in your quest to find a job in retail management.DO job search online. When we think of retail store jobs, many of us automatically think of applying for jobs in person. You can drop off your application to local retail stores, but the process for hiring managers is different than hiring store managers, team leaders, and department managers. You are more likely to see a manager job listing online than a sign in a store window. Moreover, when it comes to hiring say a retail store manager, a district manager is typically the individual in charge of hiring. District managers can go months without visiting a local store; therefore, your resume may sit untouched for months.DON’T be afraid to apply for jobs if, according to the retail management job listing, you don’t officially meet the job requirements. With that said, coming somewhat close is advised. Don’t expect to get hired for a management job if you have only been a cashier part-time for six months. On a personal note, I was a retail store manager for a small discount store for 3 years. At this time, I applied for a Merchandising Display Manager job with a national retail store. Although the listing stated 5 years prior management experience, I still applied for and was offered the job with my “meager” 3 years.DO know that many retailers now require managers to attend training. These training seminars may be a week long or a month long and they will likely take place in a different city or even state. Referring back to my experience as a retail store manager, the company I worked for had a small presence in my state. When I was hired, I was trained onsite (at my store) by a neighboring manager. Fast forward to 8 years later, all managers are required to attend a three-week training seminar three hours away. If an extended off-site training is required, it will typically be mentioned in the management job description, so be sure to read closely.DON’T wait too long to apply for management jobs. As soon as you see a job listing online, you should be ready to apply. If you haven’t already, now is the time to create a resume. Management jobs are in high demand, even in the retail industry. A company will likely let a job listing linger online for at least one week. This gives them the chance to obtain a number of resumes from qualified job seekers; however, the individuals who submit their resumes first are more likely to land a job interview.DO be friendly to all store employees. As mentioned above, you stand the best luck job searching online. There are cases however in which you are required to apply for jobs in person. Referring back to my personal experience, I would accept applications for new store managers in neighboring communities. My district manager would pickup the resume. When doing so, he’d always ask me or my assistant manager “what was this person like,” “did they have a positive attitude” and so forth. Even if you drop off a resume or application for a store in which you are not applying at, keep in mind that the individuals you encounter may have a small say in your ability to obtain a job interview.

Significance of Back Lighting in Cosmetics Product Photography

A lot of people try to shoot their products themselves. While it is a good thing to do, they actually do not have the skill set needed to get a good picture. Amateur photographers too due to lack of experience can leave a lack in a good picture. Decade of experience is a great teacher than just some photography tutorials. That is exactly where a professional photography service company like EtherArts Product Photography comes in to picture. This is what is necessary along with a professional photography gear and some knowledge of Lights and Reflections. In this article, we will share some light on the reflective Cosmetics product photography – Liquid Cosmetics in particular and what are the most important factors that you need to pay attention to for a successful photograph.Lighting the product takes most of the photographers attention. Every photographer would make efforts to light the product up appropriately. Some go beyond this to light it up so much that the product gets overexposed and is washed out in the pictures. Such images are poor photography. A smart and experienced photographer will pay attention to lighting up the product along with something called backlighting. Backlighting essentially means lighting the back portion of the product Or the background of the product. To do this it is necessary to pay attention to the below mentioned aspects of the product.Product Nature- Most important is the nature of the product to be photographed. Solid products differ a lot than the liquid containing cosmetic products. Hence we need to be careful while choosing the correct set up.Background- A lot of times, Ecommerce photography requires white background. Amazon requires a seamless white background for all their listings. This is a mandatory requirement. In order to get this white background, a lot of photographers tend to use extreme bright lights or use a high camera Aperture number. This results in the product getting ‘white-washed’ and practically disappears in to the light. The contrasts are low and the edges of the products look foggy. For Aroma Oil cosmetics photography, all we need is just the necessary amount of light in the background to get just the correct amount of seamless white. So be careful while trying to get the white background. A photo-editing software will be helpful in clearing what is left of the greyish-whitish background.BackLighting- Amateur photographers focus less on lighting. They believe that the daylight (sunlight) is the best environment to shoot products in. But they are mistaken. Studio Daylights are different. Use Daylight (white light) bulbs for the lighting. A dark room is a must for product photography. This allows the photographer to control lights as needed, mostly depending on the type of product is shot. For Aroma Oil Cosmetics Photography in particular, try using a low strength daylight bulb as a backlight. This gently illuminates the liquid inside the glass containers giving it the most enhanced look. The yellow or colored oil starts showing a nice color to it, instead of just a black or transparent liquid. This brings out the colors of the oils giving them the much needed wow factor to the photograph.