# Hack online shops. Real case from Default Value

Hacker attacks always cause huge losses for online stores and pose a hacking threat for buyers. Loss of money, customers, suppliers, and their trust. Agree, such consequences from hacking a store in which you have invested so much effort is at least a colossal headache. Or, rather, a disaster. And all of these can happen to anyone if they don't find a company that has their back and makes sure the hackers don't get to their site. More often than not, large companies are targeted by attackers, but this does not mean that owners of small and medium-sized businesses do not have to worry about security. 

At Default Value, we understand this problem very well because we have seen more than one hack of an online store. What we can say for sure is that we always find the vulnerabilities that made this hack possible. And, of course, we take all necessary measures to ensure it doesn't happen again. Most often, the reason is a lack of timely updates and investments in project security. If we still have not been able to convince you of how dangerous hacking is, here are some statistics.

Hacks of online stores happen very often. This is nothing less than our reality. [Gitnux](https://blog.gitnux.com/ecommerce-fraud-statistics/) estimates that global eCommerce fraud losses will reach $48 billion by the end of 2023, up 16% from last year. That said, it's important to note that the most common types of fraud in eCommerce are identity theft (71%), phishing (66%), and account theft (63%), with credit cards being the most popular target.

In this article, we will discuss not only how hacking attacks on eCommerce sites happen and how to prevent your store from hacking but also share with you a case from our practice that particularly stands out against other hacks. Let's go!

## Why do online stores get hacked?

So why do online stores get hacked? Most often, there are two reasons for this. The first is that hackers are trying to break the site through DDoS attacks so that it simply stops working, which brings discomfort to users and owners—a kind of digital vandalism. 

![eCommerce has been hacked](https://default-value.com/dv/uploads/Izobrazhenie_3_e_Commerce_has_been_hacked_2f2853bd38.jpg)

A second option is when a site is hacked to steal money or user data. And what is much more interesting is which online stores are often hacked: those whose owners have not invested in timely updates to their platform and security. 

For example, a new version of Magento has been released. A year or two has passed since the previous version. On the official website, as a rule, they will write, "We have released new security patches and covered the following vulnerabilities..." Hackers already know all its weaknesses if the site is still on an old version of Magento. And the longer the owner delays updating, the more vulnerable their store becomes. And the more money, time, and nerves you will spend on retail cyber security in the future.

### How do you know if your eCommerce site has been hacked?

So, let's assume that your site has been hacked, but you haven't received any demands for a ransom. How do you know if there's been a hack? 

![Magento hacking](https://default-value.com/dv/uploads/Izobrazhenie_4_Magento_hacking_05fcb0445a.jpg)

A list of possible "symptoms" may include:

- The checkout page has additional fake forms that cause you to notice a decrease in sales 
- Search engines blacklist your Magento store
- Hoster suspends your site
- The files on the server have been changed
- Malicious redirected links appear on your site
- Your admin panel is corrupted, or you have a blank screen after logging in
- Your store's website is running slowly and giving error messages
- New, unauthorized admins appear in the users list
- Google shows spammy keywords in search results for your site
- Customers report stolen credit card information
- Customers notice errors in your site

It should be noted that the last two are the most painful for the store because they undermine customer confidence. 

In addition, a lot depends on investing in the security for eCommerce. It is not a one-time effort. It is a process with constant monitoring. The site should be systematically updated, and logs and security issues—checked. Hackers may not come to you today or tomorrow. But they will definitely come the day after tomorrow. And you have to secure your business in advance against possible interference.

### Magento is popular with hackers. How and why is Magento being hacked?

So why do online stores on Magento so often become the target of hacker attacks? The answer is simple: money and personal data of customers to trade with. Hackers also have the option to encrypt the data on the server and extort money for their return.
There are many ways to hack a Magento site. Let's consider the most frequent ones. 

![eCommerce broked](https://default-value.com/dv/uploads/Izobrazhenie_5_e_Commerce_broked_8b20551825.jpg)

_DOS/DDOS attacks_

An eCommerce website is visited by a huge number of users and their requests on a daily basis. After all, a day of downtime may cost the owner a lot of money. 

This situation can be created deliberately, for example, during sales or holidays. The scheme is simple: to create conditions in which the server can not withstand the load. DOS attack provides for many requests from a single IP address. Most likely, your firewall will block such manipulations. In the case of DDOS, an abnormally large number of requests from multiple IP addresses are sent, which the firewall may not recognize as an attack, but as user requests that it will try to cope with. But here, the logic is obvious: if the site can pass 100Mbit/s, it simply can not cope with 1Gbit/s traffic. Even autoscaling without a proper protection may not help or will result in incredibly high hosting costs.

_SQL Injections_

Simply put, the SQL-injection—is an attack on the database to get profit. On any site, there are contact forms where the user enters their data—it can be personal data in the form of the phone number, email, and name, and sometimes—information about their bank card or document (passport, ID code).

The data entered by the user is stored in the database on the server. A hacker just needs to find an unsecured contact form to inject a piece of code that will change the return logic of the request. This way, they will intercept the data that a user enters.

_Spyware viruses_

The website of any online store has a chat room where you can communicate with the manager: you can address a problem, ask a question, and even show it by uploading a file to the chat room. To open a text document, the manager would have to click on the file, which would be automatically downloaded to the computer.

In this way, a virus can be transmitted that will, for example, monitor all movements on the keyboard, from entering passwords to email, cloud file storage service, and access to the store's admin panel. And the employee may not even know that the file has been infected. 

### Case Study: How was our client's eCommerce hacked?

Here is a real example from our practice. One of our clients, the owner of an online store, noticed that sales had dropped significantly. In this case, the fraud scheme was more interesting and sophisticated than a dirty DDOS. The hacker added a fake account for Google Tag Manager via Magento configurations. And through it, the malicious JavaScript code was already loaded, creating a false form for entering the data of a bank card to pay for the purchases. 

It turned out that all the scripts on the site looked normal to us as programmers. But here, it was important to remember this: Google Tag Manager has a feature that allows you to add additional JavaScript code to the page.

![features of hacking](https://default-value.com/dv/uploads/Izobrazhenie_6_features_of_hacking_3290454c2b.jpg)

### How we discovered the hacking of the online store

How did we investigate this? When we were told that something was happening on the site during the payment process, we first checked the Magento code. There was nothing wrong with it. We made sure that there was no malicious script in the database either. After that, we began to deal directly with the payment form. 

At first, we tried to find this exact payment form in the code of Magento itself or the database. And when we couldn't find it, it became clear that some additional bad Javascript code did it. Then we began to search what scripts are loaded on the payment page, filtered them by domains they are loaded from, and found an interesting script, which file had a _.css_ extension. It is essential to clarify that JavaScript files have a _.js_ extension, so seeing a _.css_ file there was very strange.

![discovered the hacking](https://default-value.com/dv/uploads/Izobrazhenie_7_discovered_the_hacking_746225eb01.jpg)

When we looked at it, we realized that the file was encrypted. It was not just open-source code that could be read. It became clear that this was where the source of our problems was hidden. The client confirmed that he had Google Tag Manager accounts. But the particular one we found didn't belong to him. Bingo! We found it and deleted it. 
We have to hand it to that scammer—often, they embed malicious code on the site directly, but the hero of our story chose a more interesting and, dare we say it, elegant scheme.

### Which methods help to prevent such hacking problems?

What does Magento have to do with it? The point is that it (especially its latest versions) has such a great feature as configuring CSP—content security policy. This is a special security mechanism with the help of which you can protect yourself from content injection attacks, such as cross-site scripting (XSS). It is particular data that the web server sends with each response to the browser to tell it where to download certain resources—files, videos, fonts, JavaScript, etc. The browser will automatically block loading data from the sources not on our list. CSP is what should be on any site to, first, prevent malicious content from downloading, and second, even if it did happen—it will not send the data from your site back to hackers. This is our first outpost of defense against hacks.

![helped to solve the hacking problem](https://default-value.com/dv/uploads/Izobrazhenie_8_helped_to_solve_the_hacking_problem_87b5286802.jpg)

The second important thing is firewalls. If possible, the online store site should not be directly accessible from the web. The role of the firewall is to filter the traffic and check if there is harmful content (e.g., a virus file) on certain pages that people try to send you. Along with the CSP, this is a beneficial practice.

Third thing you can do is to ask developers to disable adding JS via the Magento configurations. And even the default Magento checkout is designed with security in mind because it does not contain additional CMS blocks to inject malicious scripts. Thus, compromising your Admin Panel access will not make the checkout process vulnerable.

## Conclusions. The main points for the safety of eCommerce projects

So, today, we have taken apart an exciting example of what scammers can do to an online store's site. What conclusions can we draw?

Update Magento to the latest version—don't tell fraudsters where your site is vulnerable. 
Use firewalls and CSP—this is a must-have for any site, not just for Magento. 
Monitor your online store for suspicious activity or content on time—do not wait till your clients tell you that something on your site is going wrong. 
Having a permanent technical partner for backup.

Better yet, seek help on the above points from professionals—an agency that will take on the tasks of timely updates to the store, checking and fixing vulnerabilities, and applying all necessary security measures. In other words, a partner who will save you from headaches long before they occur, so you can focus on developing your business.

It is cheaper to invest in timely checks compared to the possible losses your business may incur in case of a hacker attack, not to mention the trust of your clients and simply your nerves. 

At Default Value, we value (yes, forgive us that tautology) long-term and trusting relationships with customers. Need to update Magento? We'll update it. Need to fix a bug on a site urgently? We'll do it, even if we have to wake up in the middle of the night. So do not be afraid to invest in your own security—trust this business to professionals.



Hack online shops. Real case from Default Value

# Who Are We, And What Do We Know About The Upgrade Of Magento?

Magento is the leader among open-source e-commerce platforms. As many people know, Magento 1 was announced to be retired in June 2020. And that's when it became apparent that it was necessary to upgrade to Magento 2.4. Despite this, many companies still haven't done so, preferring the old version. 

At Default Value, we've been developing stores on Magento for over 13 years, so in this article, we want to talk in detail about how to upgrad Magento and why it's worth doing. 

## Why should you upgrade Magento?

The most important improvement noticed is the increased size of catalogs (number of products and categories) and orders that Magento 2 can handle without losses in page loading speed. With the release of the second Magento version, the system became 50% faster in operation, and the checkout process accelerated by almost 38%. It was crucial to maximize the speed because it had a direct impact on traffic and conversions. Magento 2 developers eliminated the factors that cause poor performance and ensured average load times of up to 2 seconds.

![markus-winkler-cxoR55-bels-unsplash.jpg](https://default-value.com/dv/uploads/markus_winkler_cxo_R55_bels_unsplash_5e882c203b.jpg)

### When is it necessary to upgrade Magento 2?

Before upgrading to Magento 2, you should thoroughly audit the site's structure for the system requirements needed for the upgrade. After migrating without an initial audit, unpleasant surprises can pop up, wasting the company’s time and money.

Often the first thing discovered is the need to update PHP, after which you will need to recheck the site to avoid front-end problems. In addition, after these procedures, you need to weed out more unnecessary extensions that slow down the site.

One of the main reasons why you should pay attention to Magento 2 is the need for the secure operation of your online store. To do this, you need to apply all updates as soon as they appear to avoid becoming an easy target for fraudsters.

![Full Upgrade of Magento 2](https://default-value.com/dv/uploads/lee_campbell_Dt_Dl_Vpy_vv_Q_unsplash_45c99d1e65.jpg)

It is important to consider one thing: if you are staying on old versions of Magento, then with each new update keeping your eCommerce project running smoothly becomes more and more of a challenge for your development team. And some extensions may not be compatible with older versions of Magento. From this, we can conclude: the longer you postpone updates, the more problems will arise in the work of the site.

That’s why you should upgrade your Magento store as soon as possible when the patches are released and use the guide to upgrading Magento 2.

### Why are release upgrades sometimes hard?

So, why is it sometimes so hard to update Magento? Every new version of Magento brings a ton of updates and fixes. And the thing is, some of them may simply be incompatible with something in your online store—whether it's an extension, a theme, or customization features. This can bring a lot of problems. 

For this reason, you should also update the extensions installed on your site before updating Magento. In addition, you need to thoroughly test your site after the update to make sure everything works as it should. 

You need to ensure that all workflows are functioning properly, that there are no SSL warnings about "mixed content," check all third-party integrations, and more to ensure that no problems arise.

### What to do if upgrading is not an option?

Let's assume you've come to a decision not to update your Magento store. There may be several reasons for this, from the complexity of the process to its costliness. Then your only option is to install security patches for Magento. 

![Main points of upgrades Magento](https://default-value.com/dv/uploads/marvin_meyer_SYTO_3xs06f_U_unsplash_b21f5f7671.jpg)

For example, you can find them at the Magento Security Center, which also has an official guide on how to use them. Additionally, it's reasonable to use the Magento Security Scan Tool, which will send notifications about problems in the [eCommerce security](https://www.designrush.com/agency/cybersecurity/trends/ecommerce-security) of your site. You can also use similar third-party tools, but we recommend focusing on this one.

## Final word

So, Magento update brings with it many benefits for eCommerce projects. After it, you can get new features, better security, and faster site loading speeds. And this will undoubtedly affect the satisfaction of your customers and, consequently, your revenue.

Still, upgrading Magento is a complex and time-consuming process that is better left to professionals. If you still have questions about it, we're happy to give you a consultation and walk you through each step of our work. Fill out our feedback form, and our team will get back to you as soon as possible!

6 Costs You Need to Know About Upgrading Magento

# Is Magento 2 Good For B2B eCommerce Business?

We at Default Value know a thing or two about Magento and B2B e commerce. How else could it be—we've been developing web and mobile online stores on Magento for over 13 years. We developed our own modules and extensions and carried out so many integrations that it's hard to count. All this experience was accumulated primarily to meet our client's expectations and go further—to give the client something he didn't know he needed. After all, our main goal is to add value to the client's business through a high level of service. 

The B2B eCommerce market has grown significantly in recent years. According to [Statista](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1300515/business-to-business-online-market-value-forecast-europe/), the value of Europe's B2B eCommerce market will exceed $1.8 trillion by 2025. With numbers like these, it's time for your B2B company to use a digital commerce platform that will take your business to the next level.

Running a B2B e commerce web sites is more complex than a traditional B2C one. B2B customers crave additional features and personalization. Not all eCommerce solutions can handle B2B transactions, so choosing the right eCommerce platform is critical to the success of your business.

Magento is the best solution for managing everything in one place. It includes all the basic B2B features to manage your online store effectively—and we're not just talking about integration with ERP. In this article, we have compiled a list of Magento 2 B2B features to support the growth of your business.

## Is Magento a universal solution for entrepreneurs and developers?

Magento is a boxed website management system written in PHP and uses relational databases. It is used as a platform for the development of online stores. There is a paid version with support from the manufacturer and a free Open Source edition developed by the community. 

![Magento 2 a universal solution](https://default-value.com/dv/uploads/pexels_christina_morillo_1181467_e1c77449a2.jpg)

Features, benefits, and characteristics:

- Ability to set different attributes (properties) for goods, grouping goods into sets, configurable products—products with selective properties (e.g., color and size for clothes, amount of memory for electronics, etc.);
- Product sorting and filtering by attributes predefined by the administrator: product comparison, step-by-step filtering, tagging and filtering by tags,
- From the admin panel, you can manage a trading network of online stores on different domains and languages with a diverse product range. You can flexibly customize the appearance: both at the choice of "themes" and "templates," as well as by their customization.
- Work with different currencies: it is possible to keep stock and management accounting in one currency and display it on the site—in another (including at the choice of the buyer), it is possible to assign different currencies to different showcases for price tags and management of exchange rates (manual and automatic with updating on schedule), and also work with tax rates at the region, country or postal code level, depending on the type of sale (wholesale and retail sales, for example, can be taxed in different ways) and on the variety of goods (for example "tax on medical equipment")
- Flexible pricing tools: tiered pricing and pricing rules, coupons, organization of sales, bulk discounts;
- Reports by sales, customer baskets, checked items list, reviews, tags, search;
- Support of various payment and delivery methods, including delivery to several addresses;
- You can work with both individual and groups of buyers;
- Communication with the buyer: email messages, newsletters by email, customer feedback on products, and administration responses;
- Wish List (pending items), shopping cart and checkout, customers' accounts, recommendation of goods by one customer to another, related product offerings to customers (cross-sales);
- Access control system;
- SEO-friendly: you get full access to HTML markup, can set an individual HTML template for a certain product or product section, Magento automatically generates an XML sitemap for search robots, and many more;
- Data import and export + Magento DataFlow is a library that allows programmers to develop their own import and export modules.
- Modularity—the system was originally designed as a modular architecture. Its core has several modules and is easily expandable by third-party plug-ins (paid and free), which can be found on the vendor's website.

Many well-known companies use Magento as a website management system: Skype, 20th Century Fox, Nokia, Lenovo, Longines, Samsung, Olympus, and Time Out, and so on.

As you can see, Magento has a lot of advantages for B2B. So, small businesses can use the basic features of this CMS and, as they master it, add more functionality to increase the performance of their B2B eCommerce websites as their audience grows. 

Based on this small business scalability, Magento is also great for medium to large e commerce B2B projects. It's also great for rapid development because it's an open-source solution. Developers on Magento have many extensions, APIs, and modules ready to go, not to mention the huge knowledge base of thousands of developers worldwide.

### 5 Best Magento 2 B2B Features

Now, let's examine what features Magento 2 offers for businesses in eCommerce.

#### Magento Multi-Source Inventory

Every B2B customer has different needs, and to meet those needs, Magento introduced Multi-Source Inventory (MSI), designed to handle inventory from different sources or locations.

Magento Multi-Source Inventory allows store owners to manage multiple sources and handle inventory for each warehouse. MSI helps create multiple business structures, storefronts, brands, policies, tax rules, etc. Vendors can set access levels to maintain these business structures so that corporate customers can manage their accounts seamlessly without needing a vendor.

![Magento Multi-Source Inventory](https://default-value.com/dv/uploads/pexels_pixabay_38519_72f494830b.jpg)

With Magento Multi-Source Inventory, B2B store owners can add and remove company users, sort users into a hierarchy that correlates with their business essence, and define permissions and controls for each user. They can also track inventory from multiple sources and integrate it with third-party inventory systems. It's one of the trends in B2B e commerce.

#### Customized Catalogs 

B2B e commerce sellers can customize catalogs and create price lists to manage products, categories, and prices. With a custom catalog, you can determine which products to include and which to exclude, filter items displayed in search results, and more.

With a custom Magento catalog, you can also copy existing catalogs to customize them and accept new customers quickly. With the Action Log feature, you can monitor the status of background processes.

![Customized Catalogs in Magento](https://default-value.com/dv/uploads/campaign_creators_OGOWDV_Lb_M_Sc_unsplash_c606e9bae6.jpg)

When the catalog is ready, the next step is setting up individual prices. You can simultaneously set prices for one or more products and apply fixed or dynamic pricing models to provide percentage discounts.

#### Quick Order

Typically, B2B buyers almost always know exactly what they are looking for when opening your online store. Magento 2 has greatly simplified the checkout process by introducing a "Quick order." So, your customers can purchase the product they want in just a few clicks. They don't even have to register. All they need to do is enter the SKU number or the name in the search box, and then, if the product is in stock, the customer will see its image and price.

What's more, with Magento's quick ordering, customers can create multiple listings by simply copying previous orders and selecting "add to order list" on category pages, making the reordering process as easy as possible. 

#### Payment

Another important thing is how payments are organized. Payments in the B2B model are individual for each customer. Most B2B transactions involve credit, and online payments are rare. B2B clients often share open accounts with a vendor.  

![Payment solutions for Magento](https://default-value.com/dv/uploads/pexels_karolina_grabowska_4968391_c114dbb812.jpg)

With Payment by Account, Magento allows vendors to activate or deactivate this option for their customers. This way, B2B businesses can provide credit to their customers and set credit limits for each account. Customers can view their credit limit before placing an order. You can also set up payment methods for specific countries or each company, determine the optimal order volume for purchases on credit, check company transactions, make necessary changes to unpaid debt, etc.

#### Increase minimum order amount ⟶ Increase profit margin

Magento 2 also has a great feature that allows you to increase your profit margin by setting the minimum order amount (while deducting discounts and taxes). This feature is especially useful for several reasons. First, you can increase your average revenue per customer while providing free or discounted shipping. In addition, you can confirm your arrangements with your customer with a product reservation.

## Final word

As you can see, Magento 2 is not just a good but an excellent solution for B2B e commerce web sites. Of course, we have not considered in detail all of its valuable features—there are many more. Combined with the many extensions and APIs available, this platform becomes almost indispensable for online commerce businesses. 

It becomes evident that Magento 2 is definitely worth your attention. But remember that the platform itself does not solve anything—you also need to hire a skilled team of Magento developers. And we can help you with this, so feel free to leave an application on our website, and we will advise you on all matters!


Magento 2 For B2B Ecommerce

# Who Are We, And What We Know About AI In Ecommerce

The popularity of artificial intelligence technologies in eCommerce is not surprising: the number of customers is growing, their requirements and demands are becoming more complex, and the level of satisfaction is increasing very slowly. Modernization and automation of most eCommerce processes have become a necessity.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the e-commerce industry. The pandemic is increasing the popularity of online shopping. Shoppers are demanding faster and more convenient purchases. And as a result, the demand for artificial intelligence tools is growing.

Many applications, services, and programs have been created based on artificial intelligence technology, but not all of them are equally applicable to online stores. In addition, they are pretty expensive to implement. So before we start implementing this fancy new technology, let's look at how AI can provide growth for eCommerce, improve the customer experience, and increase conversion rates.

If you're an eCommerce project that's interested in taking your business to the next level with advanced technology, you've come to the right place. We'll find out what is AI in eCommerce and look at the specifics of using it in online retail and how exactly it's being applied right now. Let's go!

## Importance of AI in the Ecommerce Industry

Before the advent of personalization tools, stores interacted with the customer mainly randomly: often, a person saw advertisements for products that were not part of their interests. For example, a user who had just ordered a set of alpine skis could immediately be notified of a promotion on snowboard boots and hockey sticks.  

![AI in eCommerce](https://default-value.com/dv/uploads/Theis_Defense_8492d0469b.jpg)

To avoid this, you had to process data for each customer manually, but it was an impossible task if you had a few thousand customers. 

Today, thanks to the use of AI in eCommerce, we can anticipate customer needs without complex data manipulation. This is done by analyzing a customer's purchase history, pages viewed, and search queries. Based on this information, the system selects the appropriate products for advertising: either similar or complementary.   

For example, if a consumer has just purchased a wine decanter from you, there is no point in showing him other decanters from the range—it would be more logical to offer him a set of glasses at a discount. In the process of analysis, artificial intelligence "learns" itself. For example, suppose a user often takes headphones or a power bank together with their smartphone. In that case, the system will remember this pattern and start offering these accessories to new users who are interested in phones.   

### Top 5 Ways AI Can Benefit Your Ecommerce Business

Let's take a look at 5 artificial intelligence-based technologies that will help your business reach new heights.

#### Augmented reality
Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that has only recently emerged. Some stores are implementing solutions with which customers can virtually try on accessories and clothing. Potential car shoppers can use AR apps to switch between different color options.

According to [Think With Google](https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/consumer-trends/trending-visual-stories/augmented-reality-shopping-data), products advertised with VR/AR content have a 94% higher conversion rate than others. [Deloitte](https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/dk/Documents/Grabngo/Digital%20Reality%20GrabNGo_2019_030419.pdf) also found that 40% of customers would even pay more for a product if the store offered an opportunity to test it through AR.

Augmented reality helps compensate for the disadvantage of online commerce, where customers cannot try on and feel the product. Google says 66% of people are interested in using augmented reality technology in online shopping. The technology improves the customer experience by visualizing the use of an item before purchase.

#### Advanced chatbots
Many online stores already use chatbots, for example, as first-line customer service. In some companies, chatbots have replaced automated phone calls that used to annoy customers. They also answer frequently asked questions.

Approximately [74% of consumers](https://www.capgemini.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Infographic_Conversational-Interfaces_Final.pdf) use chatbots when looking for the product or service they want. Chatbots also boost sales by:

39. Communicating with customers who are in the process of making a purchase decision.
40. Sending personalized offers and promotional alerts.
41. Reducing the number of abandoned shopping carts.
42. Increasing the number of repeat orders.

Introducing chatbots helps reduce the cost of attracting customers, increasing the percentage of repeat purchases and overall profit of eCommerce projects.

#### Fraud protection
E-commerce companies often rely on banks to detect fraud with credit cards. Banks, in turn, often use artificial intelligence to detect anomalies in card usage based on clients' past experience.

Companies can also use a CAPTCHA technology linked to artificial intelligence to reduce fraud. The technology requires users to prove that they are not robots by selecting specific images. However, this technology may not be available to people with visual impairments.

#### Voice recognition
This technology allows customers to shop online using smartphone voice assistants, Google Home, and so on. That’s definitely the future of AI in eCommerce.

Voice bots (Audio AI) already understand people's words, but so far, only main information, not every word. And some devices can even translate languages.

![AI benefit in eCommerce](https://default-value.com/dv/uploads/pexels_photo_699122_c9964f1c3c.jpeg)

Voice commerce brands continue to improve their technology in 2022. In the wake of the popularity of voice technology, events such as the Alexa Socialbot Grand Challenge, which encourages experts to compete with one another by creating new voice commerce tools, are emerging.

#### Smart recommendations
Artificial Intelligence can suggest products to customers based on their demographics, previous purchases, location, etc. The customer receives these recommendations on the website or in targeted social media ads. The original purpose of the AI product recommendation tool was to reduce information overload for Internet users. But now, it has become an essential strategic tool for eCommerce companies. The block of recommended products, which is present on the product page, influences the purchase decision by showing alternatives to the user.

### What’s the Future of Ecommerce Like with AI?

AI in eCommerce motivates companies to integrate sales, marketing, advertising, customer service, and even logistics departments into a single data structure, where data quality and completeness are the top priority. 

When all business data is collected and stored correctly—without loss or duplication, without format violations, if all connections are logically constrained—then such data can be used for artificial intelligence training and further use. They will provide high-quality analytics with enough power to solve complex business problems, improve processes, and enhance the customer experience. Here are more examples of what else AI can do for eCommerce industry: 

- Predict future conversions. By tracking all user actions on the site and in the app, you can predict what purchase and when he will make and not target "unnecessary" advertising to him but increase bids at the most appropriate moment. 
- Increase the ROI (return on investment) of advertising campaigns. By optimizing the targeting of advertising campaigns, AI allows you to reduce the advertising budget without losing sales. Those visitors who still need to be ready to buy will be excluded from advertising segments, or bids will be automatically lowered for them. 
- Predict the customer journey. Based on the recommendations of artificial intelligence, you can make the path to purchase as comfortable as possible and gain a competitive advantage through flexible margins and the ability to assess the effectiveness of the future marketing plan. In addition, offline selling points can be improved. Collect data from sensors and video cameras to track how visitors move through the store—how they build their path, where they stay longer, and which shelves they leave unattended. 
- Reduce human error in supply chain planning. You can provide full, real-time visibility into your inventory. 
- Detect problems before they occur. AI technology allows you to be alerted to anomalies or suspicious transactions, supplier actions, or fraud while there's still time to intervene and figure out what's going on.

And that’s just a short list. The future of AI in eCommerce is still shaping, so we’ll see more cases in the next couple of years.

### AI Use Cases in Ecommerce

Of course, without examples, our words may seem unsubstantiated. With examples from market giants, let's see how AI is used in eCommerce.

![AI use cases in eCommerce](https://default-value.com/dv/uploads/pexels_photomix_company_230544_66e81d84eb.jpg)

77. Amazon: When we talk about this company, Alexa comes to mind first. But voice assistants are not the only area where Amazon uses artificial intelligence. The company also collects data on shopping habits, which it uses to increase personalization in product recommendations. To do this, they enlist the help of predictive analytics. They also use AI in their Amazon Go convenience stores, which can "remember" which items you choose and charge for them automatically through an app on your phone.
78. eBay: This marketplace decided to go beyond personalizing recommendations and went further. Artificial intelligence helps eBay work with pricing, improve delivery times, use image search, increase trust between buyers and merchants, and more.
79. Alibaba: The Chinese eCommerce giant also uses artificial intelligence technology to hone recommendations by predicting user purchases. In addition, it is able to create product descriptions on the site automatically.
80. JD.com: This Chinese counterpart to Amazon uses AI in every possible area of work, striving to automate the company as much as possible. It’s an ultimate example of AI in B2B eCommerce. The company has fully automated its warehouses down to drone delivery and is preparing its business for retail in the fourth industrial revolution.

### How to Implement AI in Ecommerce

So, what do you need to do to incorporate AI into your business development?

![Implement AI into eCommerce](https://default-value.com/dv/uploads/pexels_photo_373543_1f169fd255.jpeg)

- Develop a strategy for using AI to grow your business. This should include your vision for applying AI to your eCommerce project and what sets your company apart from the competition.
- Prioritize artificial intelligence initiatives in your company. It should be at the top of your technology development budget.
- Carefully select and hire specialists and experts in AI and data collection and analysis. If you don't have enough quality data, the value of AI will be severely limited. It's also important to keep resources on data storage equipment.
- Choose your AI projects responsibly. You don't have to choose everything—it's better to focus on relevant and narrow use cases that are well supported by data. 

## Final Word

Artificial intelligence for retail is no longer just a short-term whim but an effective means of communicating with customers, improving interaction with them, and a way to solve problems of product selection and delivery.

Even though only the largest eCommerce projects can afford such solutions, in the near future, there will probably be effective solutions available to small online stores as well.

So stay tuned for more on this topic! In the meantime, fill out a request form so we can help you optimize your site for future artificial intelligence!


AI-based Technologies to Use in Ecommerce Projects

# Who are We, and What is Our Experience in Increasing Conversion Rates?

Conversion rate optimization provides an ideal opportunity to convert existing web traffic into paying customers. This process aims to convert your website visitors into leads and then customers. 

In recent [surveys](lhttps://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/08/02/conversion-rate-statistics), ~75 percent of companies reported having difficulty finding experts who can qualitatively optimize an eCommerce project to increase conversions. 

We at Default Value have been developing Magento-based online store sites for over 13 years, and we can say with confidence: we've nailed online store optimization. And in this article, we'll tell you in detail what exactly we've learned about conversion rates and methods for increasing them over the years. Let's begin!

## Understanding Ecommerce Conversion Rates

Conversion Rate is the ratio of users who have taken a targeted action on the site to the total number of visitors. This indicator is used to evaluate the effectiveness of advertising.

Calculating B2B eCommerce conversion rates is necessary at every stage of business activities. It is determined when drawing up a business plan as well as when planning a marketing campaign. This takes into account the accounting data available. These statistics allow for correcting critical indicators in time.

Typically, the level of conversion is defined for such targeting actions:

- from ad impressions—to clicks on ads (visits to the site);
- from site visits—to register or subscribe to a mailing list by email;
- from visits to the site—in the registration of the request for a callback;
- from visiting the site—to view the catalog of products;
- from browsing the catalog—to add goods to the cart;
- from visits to the website—to make a request or order;
- from viewing the article—to subscribe to the regular newsletter;
- from viewing the article—to users' actions on social networks: likes, reposts, and comments.

It is the completion of the targeted action that is important in calculating the conversion rate. The user who committed the targeted action is called a lead.

For example, at the top level of the advertising funnel, consider the conversion from displaying ads into conversions to the site. Your ads were seen by 1200 users, of which 300 clicked through to the site. The conversion rate was 25%.

![Ecommerce conversion rates](https://default-value.com/dv/uploads/The_Online_Shopping_Conversion_Rate_Worldwide_in_2022_9d76ae9ee6.png)

### How is the Conversion Rate Calculated?

To calculate the typical eCommerce conversion rates, you need to know the conversion rate itself, an indicator of how users interact with the ad (click on a link, make a call, place an order, make a purchase). The coefficient is determined by dividing the number of conversions by the total number of interactions with site visitors. For example, 1,000 people visited an online site in a day, of which 100 people made the conversion. Therefore, the conversion rate ratio will be 10% (100/1000).

![Conversion rate calculated](https://default-value.com/dv/uploads/conversion_rate2_ff1acb4ef2.png)

CR rate needs to be controlled by online stores and commercial and non-commercial sites. It allows you to monitor sales and keep track of the target audience. With its help, you can improve the site's effectiveness and "efficiency."

In the case of non-commercial online sites, the conversion factor allows you to monitor the number of registered visitors who subscribe to newsletters, download proposed files, leave comments, and test the site's capabilities. To increase this figure, it is necessary to improve the site's functionality, stay competitive, and raise the quality of the audience.

### What is a Good Ecommerce Conversion Rate?

Typical eCommerce conversion rates vary by environment and industry—everything is different. That is, you cannot say that 5% is good or bad for your type of business. You have to determine this parameter based on your own historical and current data and take into account the current stage of business development and the channels used to promote the product. We recommend exchanging experiences with executives from similar businesses to understand benchmarks in your industry.

For example, if the sales figures from social networks are lower than those from search results (and this is usually the case), it does not mean that there is no need to advertise on them. After all, in social networks, users see your ads based on interest, and the algorithm in the search engines is different.

And you must recognize such a concept as seasonality of demand.

![Good eCommerce conversion rate](https://default-value.com/dv/uploads/seo_3_b1176d250d.jpg)

However, even CR is not the final truth. It's also worth counting CAC (customer acquisition cost) and margin from each channel because the conversion to purchase may be lower from some channels, but the margin is higher.

There is such a thing as an average conversion rate—you compare the numbers for each attraction channel in one business and calculate the arithmetic average.

However, to determine whether the conversion rate is normal for you or not, you can use the ROI, which ideally should be above 100%.

**ROI = (Income - Expenses) / Expenses * 100%**

For example, you spent 1500 USD on advertising on social networks and received income from it 2500 USD. Then your ROI would look like this:

**(2500 - 1500) / 1500 * 100% = 66%**

What does conversion have to do with it? It shows the revenue—if your ad was effective, the user walked confidently down the funnel, and eventually brought you profit, then the ROI will be high. In this case, the higher the number, the stronger and more profitable the business.

### Additional Metrics to Help Measure Ecommerce Conversions

In addition to all of the above, there are several other things that are important to consider when evaluating the conversion rate.

#### Time

When calculating the conversion rate, we are particularly interested in the time we can measure the company's success. For example, if your store has few visitors in a month, you need to collect data for at least six months to get a real picture.

#### Number of Visitors

Let's assume CR came out at 100%. This is a signal that something went wrong-we probably took one visitor as an example. A large sample is needed to get the actual size of the ROI.

#### Average Order Value (AOV)

Average Order Value is one of the most important metrics for an online store because it clearly shows a business how much they can spend without compromising themselves to get a customer on favorable terms. 

#### Abandoned Carts

One of the significant headaches of eCommerce projects is that a visitor adds a product to the cart but then closes the site without buying anything. According to research, the average abandonment rate for completing an online purchase is 69.80%. That percentage should be tracked so that you can adjust your strategy or site design in time.

#### Sales by Referrer

It's important for retail projects to understand not only the source of traffic but also to keep track of sales by the referrer. 

#### Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)

ROAS (Return On Ad Spend) is a ratio that shows whether or not advertising costs will pay off. With ROAS, you can calculate how much money each dollar invested in promoting products and services makes. And also - to estimate which advertising campaign is the most profitable.

ROAS differs from ROI in that its calculation does not take into account the cost of business to maintain the warehouse, payroll, office rent, and so on. Only advertising costs are taken into account. 

With the ROAS calculation, the effectiveness of advertising is judged by reach and clicks. However, clicks and coverage do not show sales results. Sometimes people click on ads out of boredom or by mistake, not because they are ready to buy.

ROAS is what allows you to assess whether an ad campaign is paying off or not because it is directly related to revenue and costs.

![Boost eCommerce conversion rates](https://default-value.com/dv/uploads/carlos_muza_hpj_Sk_U2_UYSU_unsplash_fa94cfafda.jpg)

### 10 Ways to Boost Your Ecommerce Conversion Rates

As we've said before, increasing conversions makes a business more profitable, sustainable, and stronger. Here are a few ways to do this effectively.

104. Build a process for analyzing and testing changes in campaigns. Examine the causes of low conversions (analyze the campaign, website, and customer experience), then look for ways to eliminate them. To do this, gather analytics and formulate hypotheses.
105. Outline the user journey and marketing funnel. For example, in Miro, to understand what the stages are and capture who and how (projects, teams, channels) are influenced by them.
106. Conduct qualitative in-depth interviews with users. This way, you can confirm your hypotheses and find new ones.
107. Use end-to-end analytics systems. You'll see the entire customer journey from ad click to purchase and track metrics across the entire sales funnel.
108. Repackage the product using the Jobs-to-be-Done method. See how you can present its values and benefits to the customer in a new way across all communication platforms: website, newsletters, and social media.
109. Check the site for usability. How comfortable is it for the user to perform the target action? Pay attention to the loading speed of the site. Test whether the site is easy to use from the mobile version and has clear navigation. Assess whether it's easy to find all the information about the product and the buying process.
110. Conduct an audit of the sales department. Find out how the department processes requests, what customers ask, and how and with which channels it works.
111. Optimize advertising campaigns. Try new leads and creative calls to action that you get from in-depth interviews with audiences, and experiment with campaign goals.
112. Personalize the site and ads so that the user sees exactly what they are interested in. For example, if you have an online store, use dynamic remarketing to offer products that the user has already personally viewed.
113. Master new advertising platforms that you haven't used before. If you're only using targeting and context right now, try checking out TikTok or YouTube.

## Final Word

Even after extensive market research, you may need to know your audience a little better.

Before you can build the perfect strategy and optimize the user experience on your site, you'll have to run a lot of tests and put everything from images and text to the number of stages of completing a purchase to the test.

But that's what conversion optimization is all about.

By studying your site from head to toe and evaluating every component of it to see how well it resonates with the needs and characteristics of your audience, you can improve eCommerce conversion rates, increase sales, and increase revenue and ROI.

That's what conversion rate calculations are worth doing. Well, we at Default Value are happy to help you optimize your site for the needs of your audience. Submit a request through the feedback form, and we'll rush to assist you!

How To Increase Ecommerce Conversion Rates

# Who Are We, And What We Know About SEO in Magento?

Default Value is an IT software development company that has provided eCommerce services in Magento 1 and Magento 2 for over 13 years. Our main goal is to benefit our customers by providing high-quality products and services. Working in Fashion, Food, Beauty, Furniture, Education, Healthcare, Automotive, Telecommunication, Sport, Energy, Advertising, PIM, and e-learning, we have gained experience that helps us achieve our goal. 

It's what makes us so good at understanding how to use SEO in Magento. Magento SEO is search engine optimization with Magento in mind. This eCommerce platform has excellent SEO capabilities, such as robots.txt file, sitemap.xml, and several ways to redirect pages. 
A service like SEO Magento is very much in demand today. The more Internet users look at the site, the higher the probability of profit growth. Search queries on the first lines of results will be only those web resources that spent a lot of time on the promotion process. All the time and financial costs will pay off a hundredfold.

Organic search via Google and other search engines dominates web traffic in most commercial industries. Studies show that organic search accounts for 53.3% of all tracked web traffic. Organic traffic also accounts for the largest share of eCommerce revenue at 44.6%. This means that SEO remains an essential online marketing tool for businesses. It is the testing ground in which winners and losers in the digital space are determined.

This latest data shows the importance of SEO. If you are an entrepreneur, you first need to have visibility; in this case, the Internet is a great ally (if you can manage well). You have to get in at the top of the list to have a better chance of selling or visiting your site. For this purpose, you can hire Magento SEO experts.

Recently, search engines have been less refined and based only on keywords. But they have evolved and base their indexes on aspects such as publication date or site content (photos, videos, text...). In short, search engines now encourage quality.

To stay competitive in the online marketplace, you must level up your SEO game; this article will help you do that. This guide covers key Magento SEO tips for maintaining search visibility in 2023. Read on to learn how to optimize traffic to your Magento virtual store.

![Magento 1 and Magento 2 SEO optimization](https://default-value.com/dv/uploads/magento_2_5d8801ad72.jpg)

## How to do on site SEO optimization on Magento in 2023?
Before we proceed to SEO, we need to understand what SEO is on Magento sites. As a rule, there are two sides to any SEO strategy—the creative and the technical. The Magento platform has a rich catalog of features that support a wide range of technical and creative SEO efforts. These features include:

- HTML and XML sitemaps are a handy way to tell search engines where your content is located. It won't help regarding search engine ranking, but it will still speed up indexing.
- Custom URLs, meta tags, and product descriptions are other things we should consider in relation to category and product page optimization. Magento does an excellent job of creating SEO-optimized and readable URLs.
- URL redirects—This point is crucial for the convenience of website users—they need to get to the right content, even when they enter the URL with errors.
- Robots.txt settings—robot.txt is pretty important, as it's the main way we communicate with search engine robots. Through the robot.txt file, we can tell the search engines which pages should be indexed and linked and which pages should be excluded from bypassing. Other important information, such as the location of the sitemap file, can also be specified through robot.txt.
- Google Analytics and AdWords integration—Google Analytics is the most popular and widely used analytical tool in the web industry. In order to track which keywords are generating the most traffic and which products have the best sales, for other types of statistics, you need to integrate Google Analytics.
- Multi-level navigation optimization.
- Support for third-party Magento SEO extensions.
- Page performance optimization tools.
- Rich snippets.
- Indexable internal search pages.

Magento allows you to optimize your store's search visibility down to the smallest detail. But with so many options, you have to be careful to avoid making conflicting decisions that can hurt your rankings. That's why creating an SEO checklist focused on your overall goal is so important.

Each Magento SEO strategy listed below stays within Magento's SEO capabilities and takes into account at least one crucial Google ranking factor or search engine marketing trend. 

Let's get started!

![Crawl and index to Magento](https://default-value.com/dv/uploads/seo_2_c0581ff275.jpg)

## Allow search engines to crawl and index your site
Crawling happens when a search engine sends a crawling bot to read and analyze a web page's content. Search engines crawl websites to recognize and understand the publicly available pages. After crawling, the search engine saves a copy of the web page's information on its index servers; this is known as indexing. However, crawling does not always guarantee indexing, and only indexed pages can show up in SERPs.
Every SEO effort is useless if Google can’t index your site or some of its important pages. So, indexing should be a top priority.
First, check whether your site is indexed by simply entering “site:” followed by your website’s URL in Google’s search bar. The results will show you all the indexed pages along with the saved meta tags for each one. If some undesirable pages appear while relevant ones do not, you might have an indexing problem on your site. Luckily, you can tweak your Magento site to make it easier for search engines to index:
### Turn on canonical URLs
By default, the use of self-referencing canonical URLs is turned off in Magento. With this feature turned off, you risk having duplicate content competing for spots in the same SERPs. Usually, page duplication comes with faceted navigation where every filtered search generates a unique URL, resulting in multiple page variants that hurt SERP ranking for priority pages. Canonical URLs tell the search engine to index only the main page and not its variants.
### Use XML sitemap
A sitemap is a file containing information about a site’s pages, content, and relationships. Magento has an in-built XML sitemap feature that automatically generates and uploads a sitemap based on preset configurations. Make sure the sitemap is generated frequently enough to capture changes on the site, includes all indexable pages, and gets submitted to search engines after every update.
Go to Stores > Settings > Configuration > Catalog > XML Sitemap > Category Options, to configure sitemap generation settings.

![XML sitemap to Magento](https://default-value.com/dv/uploads/shahadat_rahman_O2_Mdro_Nur_Vw_unsplash_89df9d6da3.jpg)

### Set up robots.txt
The robots.txt file tells search engine crawlers exactly which URLs to index, keeping them from reaching potential crawler traps and minimizing crawler requests. Even with a "nonindex" directive in HTTP headers and meta tags, it's still important to direct crawlers away from certain URL patterns using the robots.txt, such as login pages and internal search filters. Also, allow the robots.txt to reference the sitemap by enabling that option in the sitemap submission settings.
To edit the robots.txt file, navigate to Content > Design > Configuration, choose the store whose robots.txt you want to edit, and find the Search Engine Robots section. There, you can add default robots or custom instruction lines.
## Optimize site performance
Site speed and performance are crucial SERP ranking factors. Google measures page loading speed through the three Core Web Vitals (LCP, FID, and CLS). Excellent web performance sends powerful SEO signals to search engines that might give you a ranking advantage over websites with similar content. Speed and performance tuning is part of Magento SEO optimization capabilities.
### Enable caching in Magento
Navigate to Stores > Settings > Configuration > Advanced > System > Cache Management and enable caching. Browser caching saves static web page information on the client’s side so the same page loads much faster with every subsequent request.
### Merge and minify JavaScript and CSS files
Merging CSS and JavaScript files lessens the number of files fetched with each browser request. Meanwhile, code minifying optimizes the code by removing white spaces, comments, and unnecessary characters, making it easier and faster to interpret. File merging and minifying can drastically reduce a site’s loading time, especially for dynamic or interactive pages. Go to Stores > Configuration > Advanced > Developer and check the merge and minify options for both CSS and JavaScript resources.
### Optimize your images
Heavy or numerous images can impair your site’s performance. The best way to optimize images for Magento SEO is to compress them into the smallest files possible without ruining the image’s quality, resolution, or dimensions. You can do this straight out of the box by defining the maximum and minimum image height and width in Magento’s Image Upload Configuration settings. But there are also many other lossless tools that can resize and compress images outside Magento.
### Switch to a high-performance host provider
Switch to a Magento-optimized hosting platform for the best performance and systems compatibility for your Magento store. Look for a hosting provider that offers all the service and hardware specs your site requires, and check for scalability, too.
### Work on the metadata
Optimizing metadata is a big part of creative SEO for Magento and other e-commerce platforms as well. Pay attention to your product descriptions, file names, image ALT text, page meta titles, and HTML headers. Write concise, catchy, keyword-rich descriptions for each product, product category, and page. Go to Admin Panel > System > Configuration > Design > HTML heads and optimize the metadata on a page-by-page basis. And don't just copy-and-paste the meta information; create unique text for each element.
### Make the URLs SEO-friendly
First of all, ensure that HTTPS is enabled in Magento. Navigate to Stores > Settings > Configuration > General > Web and change the URL values to start with “HTTPS.” While at it, enable "Use Secure URLs on StoreFront" and "HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS)." HTTPS is a legitimate trust seal that tells users and search engines that your site is secure.
Second, ensure that each URL relates to the product, page, or resource in its path. Magento automatically generates default URL codes for each product, which diminishes the URL’s SEO value. Prevent this by rewriting the URLs to more reader and SEO-friendly strings at Store > Configuration > General > Web > URL Options. Also, set global, custom, and automatic redirect rules to divert both users and search engines from missing pages or mistyped URLs.
## Continuously test and fine-tune your SEO efforts
SEO is an ongoing process that requires hands-on nurturing at all times. Google SEO algorithms currently track 200 known ranking factors, and this number keeps growing as new ranking metrics are added or changed. Regularly testing your visibility performance is the only way to get Magento SEO validation and stay on top of dynamic SEO trends.
Magento easily integrates with powerful SEO analytics tools such as Google Search Console, SEO Monitor, Google SERP Preview Tool, Ahref, and more. These tools can help you measure critical SEO performance metrics such as:
- Organic traffic volume
- Keyword ranking
- Click-through rate
- Visibility and impressions
- Bounce rate
- On-site user behavior
- Conversion rate
- Page speed and responsiveness
- Mobile usability
- Lifetime value for users
- Inbound links quality
Keeping tabs on how your Magento store fares in SERPs gives you valuable insights into the areas that work and those that could use improvements.
## Consider using a content delivery network (CDN)
Content Delivery Network is a geographically distributed group of servers that optimizes the delivery and distribution of content to users.
Using a CDN helps deliver static files (images, styles, scripts, and fonts) to the user faster.
The servers included in the CDN are geographically located so as to make the response time for users of the site/service as short as possible. This is accomplished by CDN's architecture, which caches images, media, JS, and CSS files on remote servers. When a user opens the site, requests for these static files will go to the nearest server in the CDN. 
CDN is needed primarily for projects with large audiences in different regions or countries. And here, the benefits are clear: lower latency, faster distribution of content and increased convenience, and as a consequence, more satisfied users.

![CDN to Magento](https://default-value.com/dv/uploads/stephen_phillips_hostreviews_co_uk_shr_Xn8_S8_QU_unsplash_b0000eb708.jpg)

For Magento 2 stores that sell globally and target customers from around the world, implementing a CDN can significantly improve the speed of the Magento website.
Magento has CDN settings, but you need to configure it manually. Today, most web content is delivered via CDN. Consequently, it would be best if you considered increasing Magento's speed at its expense. But remember, the site’s host must support CDN compatibility for this to work. Ask your Magento SEO consultant to check it. 
## Final word
As an e-commerce platform, Magento is fairly rich in customizable SEO functionalities. It’s also a highly flexible and scalable e-commerce platform that supports hundreds of third-party SEO plugins and extensions. So, you’re never limited to just what the platform itself can do; you can enhance SEO in Magento by adding any number of new SEO tools and features. In other words, there is virtually no limit to the scope of SEO in Magento.
Take advantage of all Magento and its ever-growing community has to offer to boost your online store with proven SEO strategies. This checklist is a good starting point for technical on-page SEO and creativity-based search engine marketing for any Magento website.

Magento SEO Strategies for 2023				

# 6 eCommerce trends that will determine the success of online shopping in 2023

Despite this year's global supply problem, the eCommerce market continues to grow astonishingly. According to the [research](https://www.shopify.com/enterprise/global-ecommerce-statistics), 20.8% of all purchases will be made online in 2023, and by 2025, that percentage will be 23%. That means that in just five years, the rate of online purchases will increase by as much as 5.2%, compared to 17.8% in 2021.
 
So what trends will drive this eCommerce growth in 2023? Let's dive deep into this topic.
 
## Increased demand for online shopping and especially mobile commerce

According to [Statista](https://www.statista.com/statistics/249855/mobile-retail-commerce-revenue-in-the-united-states/), the U.S. mobile commerce market segment exceeded $360 billion in 2021. And its revenue is expected to reach $710 billion by 2025, doubling. It is clear that after 2020, users expect more flexibility, convenience, mobility, and accessibility from any device from online retailers. To compete successfully in the fast-growing m-commerce environment, retailers must ensure their Magento-based online stores meet all modern standards and audience needs—from a user-friendly UI to a seamless mobile shopping experience.
 
## More options for secure payment
 
In 2023, users will increasingly demand security from online retailers regarding their bank data. More and more online retailers are using payment services like Apple Pay, Google Pay, Square, or PayPal. They are more secure and convenient and don't require the user to provide bank details directly to the store they may be dealing with for the first time. More than ever, online retailers' [audiences want a wide range](https://www.shopify.com/blog/payment-trends) of flexible and secure payment options.
 
## Voice search
 
Many online retailers have already implemented and thoroughly tried voice search technology. But 2023 is expected to be a breakthrough in using this technology, with more and more players in the eCommerce market relying on it. Analysts predict that in the coming years, voice search will be one of the most popular services in online stores. And, as [studies](https://www.oberlo.com/blog/voice-search-statistics#:~:text=40.2%20percent%20of%20the%20United,devices%20on%20a%20daily%20basis.) show, up to 71% of shoppers are willing to give it a priority.
 
It is no coincidence that the world's largest online sellers, like Amazon and Alibaba, already offer such a service. By the end of the year, the volume of purchases through voice search may increase by 55%. [Experts predict](https://www.retailcouncil.org/community/technology/what-is-voice-based-e-commerce/#:~:text=The%20Future%20of%20Voice%20Commerce,above%20this%20already%20extraordinary%20amount.) that by 2023 the global value of e-commerce transactions with voice assistants will reach $19.4 billion. At the same time, other voice features, including purchase reminders or new product reviews, are gaining popularity.

## Video product reviews

Speaking of personalization and convenience, don't forget about product descriptions. Ordinary text and one or two photos are no longer enough for customers. They want the same experience they get in the offline store, but without leaving the house: to look at the product from all sides, see how it works, estimate the size by eye, etc. Video reviews of products, product comparisons, or simply video descriptions of features with a detailed demonstration of the product in action can be an answer to this request.

## Metaverse

Once again: customers want the same experience as in an offline store, but without going anywhere. Sure, video reviews are great. But the metaverse can provide an even better (albeit more expensive) experience. 

According to Peter Wallace, General Manager, EMEA, the GumGum meta-universe opens up eCommerce projects to opportunities that go far beyond even the physical shopping experience: "Brand storytelling will need to become much more dynamic and fluid to match such a fast-moving and multidimensional environment, enabling consumers to explore products and their passions and to engage with like-minded communities. In this way, the Metaverse heralds enormous opportunities for brands which offer genuine utility or entertainment. Whether playing virtual games or interacting via wearables or smart speakers, new ways to communicate and engage are emerging all the time. Retailers must keep up with these seismic shifts in behavior."

Thus, according to [Threekit](https://www.threekit.com/20-augmented-reality-statistics-you-should-know-in-2020), 71% of shoppers surveyed said they would shop more often if the shop used AR. Such technology is an excellent contribution to increasing your audience.

## Caring for the environment

According to [IBM](https://www.ibm.com/downloads/cas/YZYLMLEV), 4 out of 5 consumers pay special attention to how eco-friendly a brand is when choosing a retailer. At the same time, 1 in 2 consumers is willing to pay more to such stores. That's why more and more online retailers adopt or are about to adopt environmental initiatives to become more sustainable. This can be done in various ways: you can offer customers a discount if they return product packaging (e.g., shampoo bottles in the case of a cosmetics store or boxes from a shipping order), use recycled or biodegradable materials in production, etc. In addition, it doesn't hurt to get B-Corp or other similar certifications—it will prove that you are using sustainable business practices.  
 
## To sum up

Of course, these are not all the trends that await us in 2023, but we have discussed the most interesting, in our opinion. Undoubtedly, 2023 will bring many opportunities for businesses to develop comprehensively and attract new audiences. And, of course, it is impossible without an advanced online store on Magento, which meets all the needs of today's selective buyers. In Default Value, we have more than 13 years of experience with eCommerce projects on Magento and will be happy to help you reach the next level. So leave a request in the feedback form, and we'll get back to you!

6 eCommerce trends that will determine the success of online shopping in 2023

# Top 5 mistakes When Launching An Advertising Campaign For New Online Stores

Online retail market is constantly growing. [According to Statista](https://www.statista.com/statistics/379046/worldwide-retail-e-commerce-sales/), global revenue for the eCommerce industry will reach $8.1 trillion by 2026. Naturally, such a fast-growing market can't help but attract more and more players. But new eCommerce projects need to invest in advertising to differentiate themselves from seasoned competitors. In this article, we've compiled five mistakes new online stores on Magento should avoid when launching advertising campaigns.

## Poor analytics setup

Many novice e-commerce projects neglect setting up analytical systems, believing that Google Ads provides all the necessary data about the course of an advertising campaign. They do collect some basic statistics: click-through rates, the number of clicks on particular websites, statistics on ad placement, targeting, keywords, etc. But there is no information about users on the site (portrait, referral sources, behavior on the site, conversions, purchases, etc.), which allows you to more accurately assess the effectiveness of current campaigns and collect data for future ones.

If you're interested in spending your budget efficiently, the first step is to set up analytics systems, such as Google Analytics. In a perfect scenario, set up end-to-end analytics in the future that integrates advertising channels, analytics systems, and your CRM. This will allow you to evaluate, for example, how advertising has affected the growth of orders from new and old customers.

## Advertising on social media with an empty profile

Targeted advertising on social networks is an important step in promoting an online store on Magento. Social media are well aware of their audience, socio-demographic portrait, geo-position, movement history, and interests and can even predict whether ads will interest the user.

Targeted advertising that leads to a community page works less effectively if the online retailer doesn't develop the account from which the campaign is run. When ads pique users' interest, they may visit the store's social media community. A profile that is empty or filled irregularly will reduce interest in the store and, as a result, the effectiveness of the advertising.

The community, like the offline store, must be kept in order. If a customer finds your brand community attractive, providing the necessary information, consultation from a company representative, and proceeding to an order is easier. So that users who click on ads can make purchases, it is better to post products and services on Facebook or Instagram.

## Short-term advertising campaigns

Often advertisers ask to run a campaign for a short period, up to a week, forgetting that in the first days of the campaign, ad systems allocate a small volume of impressions to it because they are trained on a small sample of users. When the algorithms accumulate statistics and understand which audience is the most convertible to a particular advertising message, they increase the reach. In some formats, the first results can be seen in three to seven days, and the Video Action campaign requires all ten, considering the accumulated number of conversions. If you run ads for a week, the campaign will be over when the system understands who it is better to target.

For the ad systems algorithms to better promote your ads, you should initially run longer campaigns or set up the "Experiments" option in Google Ads in advance.

"Experiments" help to test a small portion of your target audience to see how effective your ad campaign will be. If you want, you can adjust the settings of the campaign. Due to the accumulated statistics, the algorithms of advertising systems are quicker to learn and subsequently allow you to get the desired number of impressions and clicks faster.

But there is a way around the slow growth of automated campaigns - switch to manual control. When an expert assigns bids, the campaign is launched immediately, bypassing the long learning process. However, it's vital to trust an expert who can manage your budget effectively.

## Ignoring CPOs

The cost per order (CPO) is the total advertising spend/number of orders confirmed. Calculating this figure before you start advertising is extremely important to understand the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns. If you spend $100 on advertising and get 10 orders, the cost per customer will be $10. If this amount is lower than the margin from the sale of goods, then advertising can be considered effective.

The greater the difference between these figures, the better the advertising works. If the CPO is too high, it's a reason to analyze advertising campaigns to improve their effectiveness.

## Neglecting competitors' experience

Novice online stores on Magento don't understand who their competitors are and what their resources and capabilities are. With a limited budget, studying your competitors is one of the most important tasks. If the category of your goods overlaps with the one of a major player on the market, you have to be very thorough when planning the launch of advertising campaigns, choosing only the most converting categories of goods.

The research will help you understand what offers your competitors are making to users. Based on this data, you can form a system of promotions and discounts and come up with texts for advertising.

To better understand your competitors, answer the following questions:

- What are the differences between you and the competitor?
- What are the competitor's advantages over you? 
- What are the disadvantages?
- What advantages and disadvantages does your product have over your competitor?

You can also look up the marketing mix of your promotional channels from your competitors. Study what advertising messages they use, how their creatives are composed, and through which channels they distribute them.

## The bottom line

Of course, we all learn from our mistakes, but the less you make them and the better prepared you are at the start of your eCommerce project, the faster you can outpace your competitors. Stick to the tips above, do a timely audit, and you'll be fine. And we are always ready to help with your Magento online store upgrade!

Top 5 mistakes When Launching An Advertising Campaign For New Online Stores

# Target audience segmentation: why it's useful for eCommerce

Any owner of an eCommerce project must create a unique product that will meet customers' real needs. It is possible to create an effective sales tool when the entrepreneur is objectively informed about the behavioral portrait of the target audience. This approach will allow a detailed study of the end consumers and their needs.

## Benefits of the target audience segmentation

Segmenting your online store’s target audience—dividing it into parts based on common characteristics—has a primary goal: to shape and tailor a specific offer to each segment of your target audience to increase conversions. To accomplish this task, you'll need to:

- analyze consumer demand;
- analyze the sales market;
- develop a marketing strategy.

The total number of potential buyers should be divided into subgroups with similar behavior. There are a lot of parameters for segmentation—from gender, age, and geographic location to lifestyle and psychological motives of purchase.

Once you identify the optimal segment, you have a real chance to form the right position in the minds of potential customers regarding your products.

In a competitive environment, such differentiation is crucial and brings undeniable advantages for business:

1. Development of a unique personalized advertising campaign based on reliable data about the characteristics of different target groups.
2. Understanding specific problems and desires of different segments allow you to solve and satisfy them.
3. Obtaining maximum conversions by fine-tuning of targeting for each group separately.
4. Creation of offers for different groups of buyers with an optimal range of products based on their requirements and needs.
5. Significant reduction of time and financial expenses for business development and promotion of your online store since products will be offered exclusively to those interested in them.
6. Substantial reduction of commercial risks due to target audience segmentation, as your company will be able to handle your "field" with maximum efficiency, avoiding irrational and risky development of doubtful territories.
7. Discovery of new market niches, which were not obvious but provided excellent opportunities for additional income.

The combination of these advantages creates (and, with a meticulous approach, almost guarantees) the construction of a more successful advertising campaign than those entrepreneurs who did not bother to segment the target audience of an online store and still squandering resources. You have a decisive competitive advantage in your hands, allowing your business to become more profitable and fully realize its potential.

## How to properly segment the audience

Segmentation of the target audience can be based on entirely different factors, including deep motives and consumer insights, but the traditional division is based on the following criteria:

- **Demographic.** Segmentation by this criterion is extremely widespread, as it allows the unambiguous identification of potential customers. Consumers are divided into groups by age, gender, income level, marital status, nationality, religion, and life cycle stage.
- **Geographic.** The audience (with an eye to the scale of the business project) is divided by countries, regions, cities, or city districts. It is one of the simple elementary forms of segmentation. It allows a company to implement different products for different geographic markets and apply other marketing strategies to attract customers from separate locations.
- **Psychographic.** Operates on types of activities, a spectrum of interests, and peculiarities of the lifestyle of customers. For example, a person's professional activity, social status, and income level greatly impact buying behavior. By studying the psychological aspects of customer behavior, you will gather a lot of information about their problems and how to solve them. You can also consider the audience's cultural values and attitudes shaped by lifestyle.
- **Behavioral.** This factor allows you to distinguish consumer groups based on their behavior and reactions. Examples are one-time purchases, purchases based on active product use, orders due to loyalty to the service provider, etc.

There are several ways to collect data for segmentation. You can reach your audience through social media surveys, a special form on your eCommerce website, or an email newsletter. You can also use analytics from Google Analytics.

Collecting information from thematic forums, monitoring various groups with a common theme, reading the reviews of similar products of your competitors, and analyzing their actions are very informative, though quite time-consuming.

After you have done all this work and divided the target audience into segments, you should do some testing, confirming the correctness of your actions:

1. You clearly understand each group of customers and know what they want;
2. All customers from the same segment respond to your offer in roughly the same way;
3. Personalized advertising increases your success in managing group behavior (Open Rate and Click-through Rate are significantly higher than for general mailing).

Quality audience segmentation in internet marketing involves a lot of work using many analytical tools and specialized services. Make sure that the number of potential customers in the segment justifies the investment in a customized approach.

## Effective tools for analysis

The deployed research is conducted after dividing the target audience into small groups. For reception of the actual information, the following toolkit is involved:

- Questionnaires. The survey is conducted directly on the website or in groups on social media. You can get real data about clients' target transitions, ages, and preferences. All data are accumulated and systematized in charts and tables.
- Systematic surveys of the potential audience. Special programs can be organized on third-party websites.
- Using analytics data for user segmentation.
- The mechanism of marketing agencies.

The possibilities of Mark Sherrington's "5W" methodology should not be ignored either. The process of market segmentation consists of the application of 5 queries:

![infographic.png](https://default-value.com/dv/uploads/infographic_8037531998.png)

The results are the finishing touch when segmenting the market. The methodology allows for effective advertising and presentation of the business model. Commercial activities should be based on the principles of customer orientation.

## The bottom line

A deep understanding of your customer's interests will allow you to develop an attractive, clear, unique selling proposition and bring more audiences for your eCommerce project. Analysis of their problems and fears will give you the best ways to deal with objections (the work will be ahead of the curve). You will be able to formulate not a theoretical but a real promotion strategy, take a strong position in the market, expand your existing business and cover new areas of influence.