The future is bright for online business in Bulgaria. As a member of the EU, Bulgaria is on a track to digitalisation, perhaps doing it with shorter leaps than trend leaders but yet at an unseen for the country pace.

Pulse of the market

According to Statista, e-Commerce in Bulgaria is valued at $766 million — a figure expected to reach $1,176 billion by 2024. Yet, there are reasons to feel even more optimistic about the forecasts.

A few things need to done first, however. The latest studies show that only 65% of Bulgaria’s population has regular access to the Internet and 34% have made at least one online purchase in the last year. Perhaps a good explanation is that people are still coming to terms with online shopping as a viable alternative to retail.

Removing the roadblocks

Trust in online shopping is one side of the cube that needs to be put together. Worries about the security of transactions, unfamiliarity with electronic methods of payment and trust in the quality of online merchandise seem to be the main hurdles on the path to speedier growth. Once again drawing from Statista, 95% of online purchases were paid in cash in 2017. This dropped to 58% in favour of payment via cards and e-wallets for 2019. This shows that trust in online exchanges is increasing. However, more can be done to speed up the process. The question is who is responsible for what?

Internet providers, for one, can do their share by increasing efforts to improve internet access nationwide. Success in this will virtually guarantee bigger engagement in the sector. Second, developers will also have to play a role. Perhaps, their role will be dedicated to educating the public about payment systems, payment protection methods, data protection, and evaluation mechanisms that encourage fair transactions; and to building easy to use, modern e-commerce platforms that nurture further trust.

Speedflow’s role

Speedflow’s mission is to raise the trust and quality of e-commerce in Bulgaria through the provision of online trading platforms, which provide stellar user experience, transparency and guaranteed security. We do this by leveraging our coding mastery and understanding of business. Our solutions reflect the latest e-commerce requirements by the European Union.

Speedflow has over 15 years of experience in the web development sector and possesses a team of highly qualified professionals that can help your business grow.

Contact Speedflow at info@speedflow.bg to inquire about our online shop development service.

WooCommerce has been downloaded almost 50,000,000 times, which makes it the most widely used e-commerce plugin in the world. According to research done by Biultwith, 22% of all e-shops in the top 1 million are built on it. What makes the platform the NUMBER ONE choice among e-merchants? You want to create your own online shop, but are not quite sure if WooCommerce is the right one for your business? We are going to give an answer to this question today.

 

Technical Support

WooCommerce is an e-commerce plug-in developed for WordPress CMS. It serves the interests not only of small to medium businesses but also of big market players. Keeping in mind that WordPress is the most popular website platform with a CMS market share of 60%, it comes as no surprise that WooCommerce offers a secure environment for eCommerce website development and top-level technical support.
Anyone who has an online shop wants it to function perfectly without any bugs. Impeccable User Experience (UX) is extremely important so that visitors can quickly and easily finalize their orders. With WooCommerce you can be sure that the website system will be working properly and will be updated simultaneously and according to the latest internet changes. There is a team of developers and specialists, a cooperative community that contributes to the improvement of its functions.

 

Professional results (for free!)

This is another big advantage of the plugin – anyone can download and install it absolutely free of charge. However, being free does not make it of poor quality. WooCommerce will make the looks of your online shop quite professional, as well as its user experience, functions, and features. Client browsing and check-out processes are facilitated and your workflow is optimized. The plugin offers options such as:

• Order tracking;
• Purchase history;
• Delivery status updates;
• Tax/Fee calculations;
• Promo codes, discounts;
• Stock Control;
• Delivery options;
• And more.

 

Overall, you can get anything you need. That’s the perfect choice for anyone looking to start their own online business without a big initial investment in web development. Keeping in mind how many other expenses an online shop has, it is always nice to save up some money whenever you can. And in this case, there is nothing better than a reliable, cheap and functional platform plugin like WooCommerce.

 

Open source

WooCommerce is an open source platform when integrated with WordPress, which allows software developers from all over the world to create an extension for it, increasing its capabilities even more. It is very much likely that whatever gadget, plug-in or extension you need for it to have already been developed. People around the world actively contribute to perfecting the plugin and WordPress. This makes it even more attractive, flexible and full of endless possibilities.

 

Personalization

The fact that WooCommerce is the most widely used e-commerce plugin in the world does not mean that your online shop will look like all the rest on the internet. On the contrary, there are plenty of themes you can choose from, you can also play with colors and style, as well as personalize different options. If later on, you decide to switch from one theme to another, it can be done rather quickly and smoothly. WooCommerce will make your e-shop look like a professional and integral website. You can even add a blog section if you want.

 

Stats and Analytics

If you have an online shop then it will be quite beneficial for you to use some analytics tools to keep track of everything happening on the website. Of course, when you have just started your online business, this technical part may seem a little bit overwhelming and confusing (at first). The good thing about WooCommerce is that it comes with integrated analytics system that is easy to use and understand. It provides information about:

• Orders sorted by data for example;
• Individual client purchase stats;
• Total number of completed orders;
• And more.

Generate graphs and pie-charts to get valuable information about how things are going with your online shop. These stats will help you see the big picture and what you need to do to improve it. If you decide that you need more complex and detailed data, you might go ahead and easily integrate Google Analytics for example.

 

Payment and Security

Online payment security is crucial for both end-users and business owners. WooCommerce performance ranks pretty high on this matter. The plugin is secure and accepts any type of payment methods –credit, debit cards, PayPal and more. Whatever payment system you might need, it can be easily integrated without the need to have it specifically developed.

 

Conclusion…

From all said so far, we can definitely see why WooCommerce is such a successful product around the world. It provides quick, easy, cost-saving and professional integration of many useful e-shop elements. With little investment, you get great results!

Ok, now let’s say you have decided to use WooCommerce as your e-commerce platform. What’s the next step? Our blog article “8 key elements for a successful online store” will shed some extra light on additional questions you might have. In case you need professional advice, we will be happy to help you out. Just contact us at info@speedflow.bg.

Online success inevitably goes through digitalizing your business and most people are already aware of that. Every year, online sales are growing, and this trend seems to be here to stay. This is why today we want to talk about e-commerce and how you can also be a proud owner of an online shop.

Business Plan

 

Above all, you should know that creating a successful website is not an easy task especially if we are talking about an eCommerce website. The first step, as with any other business venture, is to create a business plan. It should include the following questions:

• What will I sell? – Researching the markets, selecting niche and products;
• How will I sell? – Matching the product to the specific market;
• Where will I get products from? – Building a distribution network and determining the regularity of shipments;
• Who are my competitors and how do they sell? – Learning about the competition, their advantages, disadvantages, and means of selling;
• What are the costs? – Identifying all possible start-up costs, investment in a base, equipment, and staff;
• What if I fail? – Defining backup options for unexpected situations.  Always be prepared for failure.

 

Domain Name and Web Hosting

 

A frequently underestimated step is choosing a name for your online shop, the so-called domain name.
There are several criteria that you should adhere to:

 

• The name should be as short as possible, accurate and clear, making it easier to remember it;
• It must be easy to write and pronounce;
• Choose the appropriate domain extension – the most popular .com .net is your first choice, but if your site will only operate on a local level, you can also go for a country extension – .bg, .ru, .de, or .co.uk

 

The next step is finding a web hosting provider. Choose carefully, search for additional information and reviews. Contact several companies and check how fast and effective is the help they provide. Avoid trusting sites like “Top 10 Hosting Providers” because they are mostly paid by the companies themselves. Keep in mind that it is a huge niche with thousands of providers so it’s pretty easy to get overwhelmed.

 

Choosing a Platform

 

Choosing the right platform for your online store is always a controversial moment. Everyone has different impressions and opinions about their favorite online solution, but there are a few that you can safely start with. WooCommerce, OpenCart, and PrestaShop are easy and intuitive for people with less experience, and for larger stores, you can also try options like Magento.

We recommend using WooCommerce for your online shop.

Of course, you can always bet on a platform developed specifically for you, but this is usually associated with higher costs.

 

Quality Content & SEO

 

Just because you have an online store doesn’t mean you shouldn’t rely on quality content to wow your users. Detailed and well-explained product descriptions, beautifully processed photos, video content, a dedicated blog with themed articles – the possibilities are endless.

 

Write for your visitors and not for the search engines, but keep in mind the factors for better ranking. They are the foundation of the good SEO optimization and they will help your text reach more people online. Create content that would be useful and interesting to YOU, things YOU would be looking for. This is the way to make content reachable from a larger audience and satisfying their needs.

Assuming your website is optimized in terms of structure, content, code, and load speed, the final step of that part it the link building and creating a good link profile.

 

Marketing and Advertising Plan

 

Your online shop is ready, you tested it, checked every page for spelling mistakes and functionality issues, filled it with your unique content and added the products/services. What now?

 

You should compile a marketing plan to advertise and promote your brand, helping it become more noticeable. After all your online store would not be successful if no one knew about it, right?

Some basic approaches are:

• Digital marketing
• Social media
• Permanent creation of valuable content
• Google AdWords & Facebook Ads – paid ads
• Email marketing
• Video marketing

 

Now what?

 

Congratulations! Your online store is ready for visitors, with a clear vision and purpose, neatly organized and ready for a revolution in online markets. There are many different factors that are directly responsible for its performance, but if you follow this plan, success is likely to come earlier than you think.

If you need help for anything, contact us at info@speedflow.bg and we will help by providing you with professional web services.

Some time ago we created for one of our clients Cactus Online – an online shop for cactuses and other succulents, where cactus lovers from all over the world can get their hands on rare seeds and plants. Here’s what Mr. Alex Babin, Administrator, and Manager of Cactus Online, says about their collaboration with our team:

“Before Speedflow.bg team began working on our project, we did not have a clear idea of how to turn our passion for cactuses into an online business. We did not know where to start, what our logo should be, neither did we have a concept of the design of our future online shop. We needed someone to build our digital image from scratch and to organize all business processes online.

And it happened…

We could not be happier with the end result. All our expectations are met. The website has a simple and clean, with the main emphasis being the specimens from our catalog. The communication with Speedflow team was smooth and easy despite the questions and requirements we had on the way.

For example, it was extremely important to us that Cactus Online could serve customers from all over the world. We imagined our website to become a place to which they will come back regularly to expand their succulent collection. And now we have clients from New Zealand, USA, Canada, China, Indonesia, England, Italy and many more. We accept payments online and we have never had any problems with the orders or the security of our website.

All the ideas and advice we got from Speedflow.bg helped us turn what was once a hobby into a successful business. We are currently running the entire online store by ourselves – from uploading new content, photos and item descriptions to organizing and tracking client inquiries, payments, and orders. We recommend Speedflow services with great enthusiasm because of their creativity, dedication and responsible approach towards our business. The experience and knowledge they have shared with us help us to this day.”

What do you think are the key elements of a successful online store? Promotions page? Search options and categories? Contact form? Mobile version? Yes, you are right! All these functionalities must be part of your e-shop infrastructure.

However, today we will be talking about some other elements. The ones that are being quite overlooked, but at the same time are no less important for the truly successful online store. The ones that improve your customer experiences and bring in profit at the same time. Here they are:

 

1. SEO modulе

If you want your website to rank higher in Google, it must be optimized for search engines (SEO). The same goes for online shops. If your website offers hundreds or thousands of items, optimizing every single page will take you too much time and effort. Manually entering meta titles, meta descriptions, and tags, which are an essential part of every on-page optimization, will most probably strike damp over your enthusiasm to have an online shop at all! That’s why we recommend you to use some sort of SEO module. It is extremely helpful as it automatically generates the SEO texts for each product. Depending on the eCommerce platform your e-shop was built on (like WordPress + WooCommerce), there are various optimization plug-ins and extensions you can use. Here we have listed some of the most popular ones:

• For WordPress – Yoast SEO Premium*
• For Magento – ReloadSEO
• For OpenCart – SEO Pack Pro (paid); SEO modules (free)
• For Joomla – Jsitemap or SEO Boss

* Yoast also offers a free version, which is in fact not quite basic and is extremely functional.

 

2. Automatically generated bills of lading (shipment documents)

Integrate into your successful online store with the modules of the courier companies you are working with. Thus, you will be able to automatically generate product shipment numbers.  It will save hours of your time. Imagine if you were to manually fill them in for each individual order. Modernizing such processes enables your customers (if they needed it) to use the generated number and contact the courier personally. Another convenience for users that also indirectly increases the number of your website visits.

 

3. Shipment tracking

A small detail one would say, but in fact, it’s a huge bonus for those who have already purchased something from your online shop. When a client logs in, he/she will be able to track the exact location of their order at any given moment. And you? You will get a satisfied and loyal customer that has no further questions…and again more traffic to your site.

 

 

4. Customized landing pages for different client groups

Is this possible? Yes, you can use Cookies information to target products and customize the homepage of each visitor based on their history as a potential client or a regular customer. For example, you can display new products, promotions or most purchased items to new visitors. And to those who have purchased from you before – favorite brands and products they have searched for before.

 

 

5. Different prices per customer groups

An extremely useful feature, especially when your online store targets several customer segments at once:

• End users
• Retail customers
• Wholesale customers

To have this feature enabled you must create separate customer groups in your back end. Upon registration, the client will choose the group to which he/she belongs. This will determine the prices and products that will be visible to them in the future.

 

6. Automatic customer notification for products in stock

We suggest that you implement a module for product notification on your website. It will send an automatic message to customers (via email or in their personal profiles) when a product they were interested in is back in stock. First, you will make them visit your website again. Second, you will increase their chances of repurchasing.

 

7. A single page for making order and payment

Many studies (and our personal experience) recommend having a single page for placing an order. You will save your clients time – fewer clicks, fewer pages to go through, less information to fill in. Otherwise, the chances of finalizing a purchase are reduced. The less effort your customers make, the more satisfied they will be, and the faster they will buy your products. You will hit the spot!

 

8. Auction

We must say that auctions are not for every business. However, if it’s not your primary focus, but rather an additional functionality, it can be used as a way to increase your website traffic. Many users will visit your online shop numerous times for one particular item! Moreover, an auction may even increase its purchase price considerably.

 

 

 

If you have more questions or are thinking about creating a successful online store, you can read our recommendations on how to launch your first online store.

Keep in mind that this is a process that requires a wide range of knowledge – from programming, web design and having experience with the CMS itself, to SEO, digital marketing, online/offline sales, etc. Or, in short, many years of experience in the industry.

Our advice is to “do your homework”, then choose the safe and more optimized way and trust the Speedflow professionals for your eCommerce website development so you don’t lose focus on your business! Do not hesitate to contact us here or drop us an Email at info@speedflow.bg.

Sooner or later the time will come for you to have your own little place on the Internet. Whether you decide to grow an online shop business, tell the story of your journeys in a blog, or build a forum for your friends – chances are you will reach a point where you will need to build a new website. And then you will surely need a reliable partner…

 

WordPress is the most popular across-the-board application that you will run into during your researches. Statistics speak for itself:

 

• Around 30% of the whole Internet is powered by WordPress
• Over 60% of the global market for web building platforms
• Around 45000 new WordPress websites are created daily
• Over 25% of the top 10000 websites in the Web use WordPress
• Over 37 million searches for “WordPress” in Google every month
• You can see all WordPress stats for 2018 here

 

But we are not here to just suggest the most popular tools out there – in this article, we will do our best to convince you WHY YOU SHOULD CHOOSE WordPress for your new website and why this can be your best decision.

 

1. Open Source

 

Don’t break your piggy bank just yet as WordPress is completely free, thanks to its open source code. Everyone can contribute to the platform’s improvement or bug cleaning. The ever-growing WordPress community is the thing that makes the difference – addressing the needs of so many users requires its fair share of extra help if we want some quality results, right?

 

2. Personalization

 

This is where WordPress mostly excels. Thanks to its open code, practically every little detail can be tweaked and customized. Colors, structure, extra functionality, design – there is no element that you cannot alter according to your liking. It’s up to you and your choice. And no, you don’t have to be an experienced developer or write tons of code – the application relies on its simplicity and ease-of-use, even for the beginners.

 

3. Diversity

 

About 10 years ago WordPress was making its way through the ranks as the best blog application. So everyone logically associated it solely with blog creation. But the platform grew so quickly that it had to branch out. Pretty soon it became a preferred tool for building all kinds of websites. Choosing WordPress for online shops, community portals, informational pages became common – it was all made possible with the right set of plugins and customization.

 

4. Security

 

Around the Web, people are voicing some concerns about WordPress security. Truth is that, when being operated properly, WordPress provides one of the most reliable protection for your websites. Due to its incredible popularity, WordPress isn’t a stranger to hacker attacks, that’s a fact. However, the same reason applies when it comes to a lightning-fast reaction and swift threat removal. What you can do is make sure that all your themes and plugins are properly updated and only use safe and secure passwords.

 

5. SEO Optimization

 

We have already discussed the basics of SEO optimization and how important it is for our online ranking. Now imagine most of these SEO activities are embedded in your platform and fully automated. Because this is exactly what WordPress provides. The platform ensures good website speed, optimized images and permalinks, smooth navigation, sitemap generation and many more.

 

6. Integration with other platforms

 

We already mentioned plugins, which are an integral part of creating new WordPress functions. Not just that but it’s worth noting that the application is very easily integrated with other platforms too. This means that there is no need for any crucial changes in your existing infrastructure should you decide to go for WordPress.

 

Convinced yet? If you are impressed by the CMS capabilities and ready to choose WordPress but don’t have the time or confidence to do it on your own – contact Speedflow.bg and we will make sure you get an amazing and profitable new website.

 

Updated 29.08.2018