Dropshipping

What is Dropshipping:

Dropshipping is a retail fulfillment method where a store doesn’t keep the products it sells in stock. Instead, when a store sells a product using the dropshipping model, it purchases the item from a third party and has it shipped directly to the customer. As a result, the seller doesn’t have to handle the product directly.

How Does Dropshipping Work

The dropshipping process and business model is quite simple. This business model is a partnership between a retailer who sells products online and passes the customer orders to a supplier who manufactures and/or warehouses the products.

The third-party supplier then packages and ships the orders directly to the customers in the retailer’s name.  Almost any product can be dropshipped, but to succeed with this business model, you need to pick the right products and market them to the right audience.

4 Steps to Starting a Dropshipping Business

Starting your own store is easy  all you need to do is identify your niche, choose the right platform, and connect with the right dropshippers.

Here are the steps you should follow to start:

1. Select products

Once you have identified your niche, you need to select in-demand products so that you can successfully run your store.

2. Select a domain name for your store

You need to select a domain name that resonates with your niche so that customers can find you online.

3. Choose a hosting platform

WooCommerce lead the pack when it comes to platforms. With WooCommerce, all you need to do is pay for the domain name and hosting of your store since it is a free WordPress plugin.

4. Select a plugin

Plugins are easy to use and can quickly connect you to good dropshippers and speed up the whole setup process. The plugins that will automate the import of dropship products directly from your dropshippers warehouse to your store with a single click.

The Benefits of Dropshipping

·       Money doesn’t need to be paid upfront to acquire the inventory, which means that if the business does not pan out, the only money you have lost is what you paid to get your website started

·       Your business is less susceptible to loss of revenue as a result of changes in tastes or trends because there is no such thing as excess inventory

·       Lower volume niche products can be offered alongside popular best sellers.

·       New products are less expensive to launch because they do not require an investment before they can be sold

·       Often, you have access to better shipping rates through a dropshipper than you would as a small business shipping your own packages

·       The number of goods that get damaged during shipment is generally lower when using dropshipping because it reduces the number of times that the product has to change hands.

·       All the hassle of packing of products to prepare them for shipment is taken care of for you

·       You can add new products to your offerings very quickly.

·       A storage facility or retail location is not needed—just the website where the items will be sold

·       Your business can offer a wider variety of products than would be possible if you had to buy and store all of the items you decided to sell

·       Products that are impractical to store (ex. large products, perishable products, etc.) are easier to sell.

Why is Digital Marketing Strategy Important for Dropshipping?

Digital marketing planning and strategy is important to every company in every industry. And this definitely holds true for dropshipping and eCommerce businesses. After all, you don’t have to worry about inventory or suppliers.

Here’s why:

1. Competition is at an all-time high

The increase of competition in every niche imaginable, which forces every dropshipping business to seek a competitive advantage.

You’re fighting for traffic, engagement, and of course, sales.

A digital marketing strategy will allow you to position yourself strongly against established competitors while protecting against newcomers to your industry.

2. Out of Sight, Out of Mind

You don’t want your brand to be “out of sight, out of mind.” You want it to be visible to your audience, no matter where they look. It takes over 4 impressions for your dropshipping business to get someone’s attention, so don’t be discouraged when you don’t make a sale right away.

If they search one of your primary keywords online, you want your website to show up at the top of the organic search results.

When they’re scouring social media for fresh content, you want your updates to be among the first ones they see.

When they check their email inbox, you want to greet them with a special offer.

3. Brand Building

Your target audience should know what your company does. You should be selling a lifestyle, a mission, something people connect to on a deeper level. You should be able to distinguish yourself from your competitors by building an inimitable brand.

Many dropshippers will allow you to supply your own labels, so customers don’t even need to know that you are using a drop shipper rather then sending them their merchandise personally. The increase in dropshipping providers and offerings has made it easier than ever to start an online store.

How API-driven Commerce Is Changing the Digital Customer Experience

What are APIs?

APIs are contracts between different applications. They determine how to exchange data and how to structure them. If two communication partners agree on a set of rules, they can share information and allow for new functionalities to evolve. This can be used by businesses to integrate different applications as well as to communicate with smart devices.

How API-based digital commerce systems work?

These are programs that connect with mobile apps, Facebook store and websites. Without APIs. Now, the simplest method of understanding how application programming interfaces work is by knowing it’s an application that allows two applications to communicate with one another through commands designed by expert programmers.

API-based digital commerce systems have been an enormous relief for business for of a couple of reasons. For instance, a customer who is executing a particular command on the B2B E-commerce portal can initiate this multi-application communication platform. Here, an order kick starts the shipment of a product from the factory to the distribution center.

You can facilitate the safe sharing of information from one app to another using an API. Hence, that is why there are many API-Based digital commerce systems from social messaging, payments, finance, Bitcoin, E-commerce and several other categories.

The central advantages of headless, API-driven E-commerce for online sellers

1. Instantly make changes to your front-end

With headless, API-driven E-commerce, you can update and introduce new front end experiences with the drop of a hat. Let’s say you want to implement a custom checkout flow or add a new application you can just go ahead and do this without worrying about the back-end. As soon as you introduce new content to your front end, it’s there: no waiting, no extra investment in the back-end, and no time lost.

2. Remain at the Cutting Edge of UX and UI

Headless, API-driven E-commerce allows you to control all the user experience and interface elements of your online shop across all the possible devices that users have. This gives you ultimate, one-click control over the look and feel of your online shop. You can be far more experimental while also ensuring a consistent customer experience across all devices and viewing formats. As there is no front-end, like with traditional E-commerce systems, developers can create a brand new user experience and continuously update it to keep up with the latest design trends and customer expectations.

3. Introduce Much-Needed Features Quick

Headless E-commerce systems are by definition reliant upon APIs. This means that they can seamlessly connect to other platforms and applications whenever you need it. The example above of connecting a fulfillment platform is a great use-case. You can simply connect a new state-of-the-art technological solution and optimize your operations from sales to marketing, to logistics via an API. You can also instantaneously make your shop available through any device.

 4. A Zero Tech Skills Approach

You can adapt the front-end via simple programming applications, you can get creative with the content you publish without needing advanced tech skills. You and your team will be able to edit and update the front-end (and may even be able to design things, depending on how creative you are) with only minimal developer guidance.

5. Cut Costs

This is a simple time question. As front-end changes don’t entail changes to the back-end, time and money is saved from your development budget. Moreover, as developers (or any of your employees) can employ headless templates and partner applications, you can optimize the design process and other operational areas of your business via automatic tools.

The Site Search API-based digital commerce tool

It is true that when you provide detailed search features on your website, you enhance your customer’s shopping experience. With this API digital commerce system, you can help your online visitors scroll through and discover unique items or brands with only a few clicks.

Of course, there are retail shops with extensive web pages. Thankfully, this search API tool ensures that you give your visitors a simple and less annoying time as they search for a given product or content that might be buried under tons of web pages. All they have to do is to enter their product of choice, and the program will do the rest.

Future proof your Business via APIs

The marriage of the front and the back-end in E-commerce is officially over. With the help of nifty APIs, you can now simply adapt the front-end without updating the whole system. So you can continuously keep customer experience features fresh and make sure your brand is always contemporary and consistent across all user devices and save time and money while doing it.

Headless, API-driven E-commerce is the next logical step for E-commerce, especially in a rapidly changing and increasingly virtual consumer environment, spurred on by a global pandemic. To put it simply to survive today, E-businesses must lose their head(s).

Headless Commerce

What is Headless Commerce?

Headless commerce architecture is the decoupling of the front-end presentation layer of a website from the back-end E-commerce functionality. Developers can utilize their front-end technology of choice to deliver high-quality content experiences, and plug in an E-commerce solution on the backend that manages all commerce functionality.

For brands, it’s easy to see how headless commerce can provide more options when it comes to E-commerce platforms.

Headless solutions enable brands to make changes quickly to stay current, which is vital in today’s retail landscape. Businesses are competing for mindshare and battling the rising costs of customer acquisition.

Let’s look at the three models for structuring an E-commerce business:

1. Monolithic.

This is where E-commerce started, in the days when hardware and software were inextricably linked. For instance, if you buy IBM hardware you must use IBM software. The industry has since evolved from this model.

2. Commerce-led

This strategy uses a commerce platform front-end for UX and checkout, but APIs for data orchestration across a more robust infrastructure.

Businesses then often implement a PIM, ERP and OMS for product information management, accounting and customer integration, and inventory management across channels.

3. Experience-led

This strategy decouples the E-commerce platform from the presentation layer, so businesses can use popular content management systems (CMS) like WordPress, digital experience platforms (DXP) like Drupal, progressive web apps (PWA), or custom front-end solutions for unparalleled experiences that increase brand value perception and drive to checkout.

How headless commerce works

Just as with a headless CMS, a headless E-commerce system works by passing requests between the presentation and application layers through web services or application programming interface (API) calls.

Headless Commerce vs. Traditional E-commerce

1. Traditional E-commerce

 Many brands still use a monolithic strategy, and many agencies still recommend it for enterprise and well-established businesses.

The downsides to a monolithic strategy are slow go-to-market timelines and high development costs. This delays innovation.

Upsides to a monolithic model are full platform control for the IT department  which may come in handy if an E-commerce strategy or site experience needs extreme customization.

2. Headless E-commerce

Headless commerce meets businesses where they need commerce functionality. Brands can deliver API-driven experiences through a CMS, DXP, application, device, or custom frontend

With headless, brands can create commerce experiences in other platforms using powerful APIs.

From highly customized react.js or angular sites to a CMS, it’s possible to integrate even the most complex commerce requirements with beautiful work. Brands don’t have to compromise content to combine it with agile, flexible E-commerce.

Open SaaS is a SaaS platform architecture choice. It includes the following:

• High or unlimited API call volumes.
• Multiple endpoints.
• Well-documented developer documents.
• A heavy focus on API development in product roadmap make.

Benefits of Headless Commerce for Online Merchants

Content- and experience-led strategies using headless commerce can provide brands with:

1. Advanced technologies to create visionary, fast websites.
2. Flexibility and familiarity for developers.
3. Complete ownership over site architecture
4. Marketing effectiveness for innovation without hurting back-end processes.
5. Speed to market for international and omnichannel GTMs.
6. Conversion rates and lower customer acquisition costs.

Additionally, headless commerce opens up a world of possibilities with brands that are looking for a content-led strategy to begin with.

1. Advanced technologies to create visionary, fast websites

In a headless environment, brands can test new technology. Because the front-end is decoupled from the back-end, developers are free to create as they please instead of being tied to the confines of a traditional CMS.

Headless allows for more flexibility in content delivery because you can connect a CMS, DXP, or Internet of Things device (IoT) that is specifically designed for creating content- or experience-led commerce. You can then swap out the front-end without affecting the backend operations.

A headless E-commerce platform houses content centrally and is able to deliver it anywhere via API. This method allows for a much faster delivery than traditional E-commerce platforms and lends itself to a better customer experience.

2. Flexibility and familiarity for developers

Headless commerce enables brands to choose the E-commerce platform that works best as the engine for their online store while also working with the frontend of their choice, be it a CMS, a DXP, a PWA or a custom solution.

If a development team has a certain technology or programming language they’re comfortable working with, headless allows them to keep what works with their workflow while streamlining their processes and developing efficiencies.

3. Speed to market for international and omnichannel GTMs

Combine all of the advantages above and now apply them to the process of launching in new geographies or launching micro-brands.

Once you have the system setup, a headless solution is easily replicable across the board, optimized for international SEO and connected to the overall data orchestration infrastructure.

4. Conversion rates and lower customer acquisition costs

Headless is an effective way of reducing these costs because your brand can use a content- or experience-led strategy to draw in organic traffic instead of relying on paid advertising. Dynamic and smooth customer experiences also help increase conversion rates.

5. Complete ownership over site architecture

With headless, some of the parts of the system are decoupled (the frontend from the backend). On a headless platform, the content management application and content delivery application environments are separated for greater control.

One reason brands turn to headless is because they already have a frontend solution they’re happy with, and they just need more from their backend system.

Headless Commerce Use Cases

The most common reasons for using a decoupled SaaS E-commerce platform in combination with a separate frontend solution are:

• PCI Compliance mitigation: Less work for IT teams, as the SaaS provider takes on the risk.
• Checkout security and fraud protection: Same as above. Less work for IT teams as the SaaS provider takes on the risk.
• Open architecture and extensibility: Utilize pre-built integrations with ERPs, CRMs and more, or custom build your own with additional APIs and SDKs.

1. Custom solutions

For many, the reason to choose headless is because they have big ideas that no one system can provide out of the box.

Headless can allow them to keep the customization and lose the cost and upkeep. Headless can provide them the open SaaS experience that’s the best of both worlds. APIs enable the flexibility they need to think beyond the limits of any one platform or technology and seamlessly connect systems in a more modular fashion.

2. Content Management System (CMS)

When the headless approach is paired with a CMS, it makes for a powerful combination. In these cases, the E-commerce platform is decoupled from the presentation layer, so a brand can use popular CMS solutions like WordPress, DXPs like Drupal, or custom frontend solutions for unparalleled customer experiences that increase conversion:

• WordPress

WordPress is the CMS of choice for more than 25 million websites around the globe.

WooCommerce was for a long time the only serious player in that market. However, WooCommerce’s drag on site speed as well as high-cost for security and implementation (WooCommerce is an open source solution) have pushed would-be users to lower-cost SaaS E-commerce platforms.

• Drupal

Drupal is considered a leading enterprise CMS solution.

One of the main reasons why Drupal is preferred by enterprise organizations is its security. Drupal is designed for custom development.

Whereas in the WordPress community, folks like to use plugins (hence the BigCommerce for WordPress plugin), those in the Drupal community like to custom build. As a result of custom build versus plugins, Drupal often doesn’t have the same site load lag times as WordPress — and it can handle a much larger volume of content. Other than that, some designers, developers and editors just plain prefer Drupal over WordPress.

• Adobe Experience Manager

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) brings together a CMS and digital asset management (DAM) in a single place. It’s a comprehensive solution for building websites, mobile apps, and forms, directly alongside marketing content and assets. It has native connections to Adobe Creative Cloud, making it easier to get content to market faster and create the personalized experiences.

AEM features a CMS, DAM, digital enrollment and forms, and managed services. Together they offer a number of benefits:

• Create faster with native Creative Cloud connection: Make it easier for creatives to create, marketers to approve and publish, and both teams to work together better.
• Do more with smarter digital asset management: Save time by editing, optimizing, and delivering them, too — all from one platform.
• Eliminate tedious tasks with asset automation: Use AI to automate tagging, cropping, workflows and distribution — doing in minutes what used to take hours.
• Engage more customers with rich media delivery: AEM’s AI and machine learning brings hidden opportunities and answers to everyone with the click of a button.
• Build Lifetime Value: Deliver digital experiences over the lifetime of your customer that build brand loyalty and drive demand.
• Be Consistent Across Channels: Deliver amazing content across websites and mobile, to in-store and beacons.
• Get Timely and Personal: Deliver and manage experiences that are responsive, relevant and social.
• Sitecore

Sitecore is another leading CMS used by organizations globally to create personalized digital experiences.

3. Digital Experience Platform (DXP)

A DXP is a type of software that enables companies to quickly digitize and provide an improved customer experience. Combining a DXP with a headless CMS solution results in a strong foundation.

The value in this partnership comes from the flexible API-driven content and its capability to integrate with other services.

Bloomreach

Bloomreach is a DXP. Large enterprise retailers are a perfect fit for this headless E-commerce CMS solution. Bloomreach offers a microservice / headless architecture and APIs to reduce IT complexity in powering an optimal customer experience from homepage to checkout.

4. Progressive Web Apps (PWA)

Progressive web apps (PWA) are web applications that use the latest web capabilities to deliver a native app-like experience to users. PWAs are web applications that are regular web pages or websites but can appear to the user like traditional applications or native mobile applications. PWAs combine the capabilities of websites and mobile software to create an immersive user experience that can lead to higher conversion rates and more time spent on site.

Big brands from Airbnb and Twitter to BMW and Starbucks are already using PWAs and seeing big results.

How headless commerce supports omnichannel retail

The idea of “omnichannel retail” means that a shopper can use the same online platforms to shop both online and offline, on any device, at any time. Since the primary objective of headless commerce platforms is to offer a seamless user experience across channels, these platforms are an essential component of the omnichannel retail mission.

Unlocking Flexibility: Examples of Headless Commerce in Action

It’s often very difficult to tell if a brand is using headless commerce as a strategy just by looking at it.

This will only become more so true as headless E-commerce becomes more mainstream and loses its URL redirect to a checkout page.

let’s look at a few headless commerce examples:

1. Burrow

Burrow is a direct-to-consumer furniture store, founded specifically to eliminate the hassles of traditional furniture shopping. They designed a modular product that was stylish and comfortable and could be affordably shipped to customers.

In addition to needing a powerful backend platform that could grow and scale with them, Burrow also needed to be able to customize their site quickly and easily. Their ideal solution was one in which templates didn’t limit their creativity and developers weren’t needed to make simple changes.

Since launching with their headless solution, Burrow saw a 30% increase in conversion rate in only two months and a 50% increase in site speed and performance.

2. Larq

LARQ is a seller of self-purifying water bottles, designed to solve many of the issues people have with traditional water bottles.

Headless could provide the customization that LARQ needed, such as giving them complete control over the content and customer journey. LARQ’s sites are run with BigCommerce as the E-commerce engine on the backend and a custom solution built with React on the frontend. This enabled them to control their regional sites (currently US, EU, UK and Canada) on one single domain.

LARQ was able to launch their E-commerce site in just two months. Since launching, they’ve seen a 400% increase in revenue year-over-year and an 80% increase in conversion rate over three months.

3. Louise Kennedy

Irish fashion designer Louise Kennedy uses WordPress on the front-end to host their products, blog content and merchandising.

This  allows them to use integrated payment options like Amazon Pay, PayPal One Touch, Apple Pay and more without having to do the interaction work themselves.

This saves time, saves money, increases security and allows for fast innovation and campaign launch to remain competitive in the industry.

4. Carluccio’s

Carluccio’s built a presentation layer (i.e. the site experience) on WordPress, then used  implement a headless commerce solution.

This allows a customer to stay on the same site (no subdomain) throughout the experience.

5. Canvas 1839

Like some of the other use cases we’ve talked about, Canvas 1839 soon found they were constrained by their own growth. Their platform, Shopify, also limited them in other ways that were specific to their industry, including what payment providers they could use.

In addition to wanting a platform that was vocally supportive of CBD merchants, they were also interested in a headless model because they wanted a quicker, more efficient development cycle for both their developers and marketers. They wanted their developers to be able to use tools like Gatsby, React and GraphQL to build the engaging front-end experience, while marketers could easily build and manage the content-heavy pages — all fully integrated to the rest of the website.

Headless Content Management System (CMS)

What is a Headless Content Management System (CMS)?

If a traditional CMS was a body, the “head” would be the front-end components like the front-end framework and templating system. If you chop that head off, and you’re left with a headless CMS.

A headless platform has no default front-end system to determine how the content is presented to the end user. Instead, it’s front-end agnostic, meaning that your content is raw and can be published anywhere, through any framework.

By getting rid of the front-end delivery layer, your CMS is suddenly a content-only data source. It produces content and then sits there. Waiting.

what is a decoupled CMS?

With a decoupled CMS – also known as a hybrid headless CMS – your content is managed separately and is front-end agnostic, just like a headless CMS. Yet, it has front-end delivery tools in the box, like templates, if you want to use them.

What’s the difference between Headless CMS and decoupled CMS?

With a headless CMS, you have modeling and editorial tools to create and edit content. It assumes that you and your nerdy front-end development team can handle the rest with whichever frameworks and tools you prefer.

A decoupled CMS, on the other hand, doesn’t assume anything. It does everything a headless CMS does, but it doesn’t stop there. It also says, “Hey, we’ve got some templating tools here so you aren’t working from scratch.”

For marketers, this subtle difference can be a significant one. While the decoupled CMS uses the templates,  many of those tools are not available in a headless CMS architecture. However, purely headless systems allow more control over how the content appears on each type of device.

Advantages of a headless CMS

1. Front-end agnostic

A headless or decoupled CMS is front-end framework agnostic. That means you can publish content on any device or channel via API calls. Plus, front-end developers are free to use their favorite frameworks and tools.

2. APIs

Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) enable two technologies to speak to each other. Both headless or decouples environments use APIs to connect and communicate with other softwares and channels, allowing for content delivery. But that’s not all. APIs can also be used to send data (like end-user activity and preferences) from those channels, devices, and touchpoints back to the CMS for processing, analysis, and re-distribution.

3. Future-proof

APIs are prepared to speak to any new device or channel that emerges in 2019 and beyond. Thus, your content will remain future-proof, no matter what innovative device next hits the market.

Disadvantages of a headless CMS

1. No fun for marketers

Robbed of WYSIWYG editing, blogging functionalities and other user-friendly features, marketers, in particular, are left out in the cold until their development team sees to their needs.

2. A fragmented tech stack

With a headless CMS, removing the ‘head’ simply means having to hunt for further technologies to replace it. This can entail building front-end solutions in-house, or deploying existing third-party tools to plug the gap. Either way, it could get costly both monetarily and through time spent—not to mention difficult to manage. This problem can be partially alleviated with a decoupled CMS, which will bring those marketer-friendly features right back.

3. No content previews

If you do manage to get your marketers back on track be drafting in third-party tools, they still won’t be able to efficiently use a headless CMS, as they won’t be able to easily preview content before it goes live.

Advantages of a decoupled CMS

1. All the benefits of a headless CMS
2. Optional front-end templates

Decoupled CMS will likely provide you with templates to help launch websites and pages quickly, and to give your developers a head start on any other front-end presentation layer they wish to build.

3. All the tools marketers love

A decoupled CMS doesn’t just give marketers their templates back, it also provides WYSIWYG editing, content previews, and additional content publishing tools.

How headless CMS help with omnichannel marketing?

Omnichannel marketing enables brands to deliver a seamless, integrated and continuous experience across all touchpoints and devices, preventing a disjointed customer journey if and when the customer switches from one device to another. Headless content management can help brands launch and manage omnichannel marketing campaigns.

1. Faster to market

With a headless CMS, developers can simply deliver content via API calls to the device or touchpoint in question, allowing them to focus solely on the UI and the end-user experience. Naturally, this greatly decreases the time to market when a brand wants to adopt a new touchpoint into its omnichannel experience.

2. A flexible technology stack

With a headless CMS, APIs are used to integrate with any third-party tool, allowing marketers and developers to switch between tools and adopt new technologies thus ensuring that they’re always using cutting-edge technology in all areas of the business.

For example, you can have one tool that provides marketing automation, another tool that will help you deliver experiences to smartwatches and a subsequent tool for taking payments from voice-activated applications. All of these tools can be integrated and accessed via the headless CMS. Plus, if you begin to face problems with a tool, you can simply swap it out for a different one.

3. Deliver more personalized experiences

Headless CMS , it does open the door to headless commerce, enabling brands to deliver personalized shopping experiences to IoT devices and smart displays. Plus, thanks again to the APIs at play, the headless CMS can collect data which can, in turn, be used to fuel a personalization campaign across channels. perspective, your omnichannel strategy needs to be put personalized content right at the heart of the customer experience.

Headless CMS come with engagement tracking and analytics that can monitor a customer’s journey through different touchpoints. With this information, you can deliver personalized content at different stages in the customer journey, thereby improving the likelihood of conversion.

Open-source headless CMS platforms

Software released under an open-source license allows developers to directly modify the source code. This control over the platform lets developers customize a CMS to meet their team’s needs.

Let’s take a look at three leading open-source CMS vendors:

1. Strapi

Strapi is an open-source CMS platform that’s built on Node.js and works with the database and self-hosting solutions of your choice.

The primary goal of Strapi is to build a solid API, while offering an intuitive admin panel.

Strapi is ideal for small companies that need a flexible API for their front-end.

Top Strapi features:

• Built-in support RESTful and GraphQL APIs.
• 100% JavaScript for front-end and CMS.
• Intuitive admin console for content editors.
• Highly extensible with a built-in plugin system.
• Simple for developers to use.

2. Cockpit

Cockpit is a free, open-source, lightweight CMS that’s built to work with NoSQL databases like MongoDB and SQLite. It’s headless and API-first, meaning the CMS focuses only on backend APIs to manage meta-data and data entries.

There’s no presentation layer, so developers have total freedom to choose and manage the frontend. Cockpit works well for clients who want a simple installation and require an adaptable content structure. Cockpit is also well-suited to support content on multiple devices, such as Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

Cockpit is ideal for small digitally-forward businesses.

Top Cockpit features:

• Simple installation and self-hosted.
• API-first CMS with JSON content.
• Language and database agnostic.
• Flexible content models and no predefined models.
• Modern and clean UI

3. Directus

Directus is an open-source software platform suitable for projects that use customized database structures, as it comes with a wrapper to serve content from SQL databases via an API.

Directus also allows non-IT users to manage content through the Admin App. The platform has a strong version control system, allowing for rollbacks and retrieval of previous versions. While it does allow for uploading files, Directus occasionally encounters problems with long-form videos.

Directus is ideal for small to mid-size businesses that use traditional SQL databases.

Top Directus features:

• Every aspect of the CMS is extensible and customizable, with no limitations.
• Multilingual content management, with 10+ languages supported out of the box.
• Built-in authentication and support for other SSO services.
• Intuitive and secure admin app for content creators.
• Unopinionated, so there are no best practices or specific languages required.

SaaS headless CMS platforms

With SaaS headless CMS platforms, developers are not allowed to modify the source code. Users need a specific license key to implement these systems, either on-site or through the cloud, and rely on the vendors for further customization or extensions of the software.

SaaS headless CMS platforms ease the burden for IT teams, as the vendor is responsible for updates, maintenance, and technical support.

1. Core dna

Core dna is not just a CMS, but a digital experience platform (DXP) that supports eCommerce, intranets, extranets, customer portals, and digital workplace solutions.

The platform has features for customizable templates, WYSIWYG content creation, image editing, search engine optimization (SEO) management, and more. With its APIs, Core dna can be integrated with third-party tools that support eCommerce, social media promotion, digital marketing, customer relationship management, and more.

Core dna targets the mid-size and enterprise-level markets with high-traffic and complex requirements, boasting clients such as Tivoli Audio, Stanley-PMI and SEEK.

Top Core dna features:

• All-in-one DXP for websites, eCommerce, intranets, and more.
• Personalization features that make dynamic websites quick to launch.
• Webhooks make integration with other systems straightforward.
• Pre-built solutions for a variety of industries.
• Over 1500 new features added every year.

2. Contentful

Contentful comes with a wide range of features and prices, from the free trial and developer plan, all the way to custom quotes for enterprise systems. The variety of options makes the CMS a strong contender across numerous market segments.

Contentful is hosted on a cloud-based infrastructure with AWS, which makes it more reliable. The platform also includes a simple markdown language to make writing content that’s well-formatted quick and easy.

Contentful is ideal for many enterprise businesses that need a solution with a faster time to market.

Top Contentful features:

• Rich editor interface and intuitive content modeling.
• Advanced caching techniques and integration with CDNs.
• Cloud platform monitored by engineers and support teams full-time.
• Flexible APIs and SDKs that developers can work with.
• Centralized content hub for maximum scalability.

3. Kentico Cloud

Kentico Cloud allows users to develop digital experiences for their customers, without the need for specialized coding skills. At USD$299 per month, Kentico Cloud lets content collaboratively manage content, while easing the maintenance requirements for IT teams.

Kentico is ideal for mid to large-sized businesses looking for a best-of-breed solution.

Top Kentico Cloud features:

• Integrate with existing technologies and microservice applications using a variety of languages, tools, and pre-built modules.
• Enterprise compliance with workflows, single sign-on, and multi-factor authentication.
• Collaboration features like custom roles, commenting capabilities, and notifications.
• Back end from security to scalability handled by Kentico.

Can a traditional CMS be used with headless CMS?

Traditional CMS such as WordPress comes with HTML templates, CSS style sheets, and JavaScript libraries to handle the frontend, along with a SQL database to store the data in the backend.

By contrast, a headless CMS decouples the frontend and backend, and each component communicates through API calls. This architecture allows for headless CMS users to send content to nearly any type of internet-enabled device that can consume APIs.

Developers can use a headless CMS with its traditional counterpart if suitable APIs are available. For firms looking to test out a headless CMS, but who still have resources dedicated to their traditional architecture, using API calls with their existing CMS may be better than a costly migration to a new CMS.

Is a headless CMS secure?

Another concern that brands face when migrating their CMS platform is security. Therefore, it’s essential that IT teams only shortlist and select headless CMSs with strong track records as well as security technologies and protocols that protect against cyber attack.

IT teams should implement other best practices for server security like requiring HTTPS for network communication, whitelisting of IP addresses, and ensuring secure connections to other third-party software integrations like eCommerce, email marketing, and more.

In the end, a headless CMS can be secure if its APIs follow industry standards and IT teams ensure the infrastructure uses security best practices.

Examples of companies using a headless or decoupled CMS

Countless brands are using headless architectures to distribute content to new channels, integrate third-party tools, and collect data at scale. Here are three examples:

• Princess Cruises
• The Economist
• V-Zug

Real-world headless CMS use cases

When it comes to omnichannel digital marketing, a headless CMS is ideal for almost any touchpoint.

Headless CMSs leverage APIs to communicate with any internet-enabled device.

This enables marketers to deliver relevant and personalized content to whichever devices their customers demand. A headless CMS, therefore, can futureproof a brand’s customer experience.

Here are a few of the most interesting real-world scenarios:

1. Downtown D.C. improves tourist experience with digital signage

Instead of using traditional signage, the organization chose to deploy thirty interactive kiosks to provide news and alerts in over a dozen languages.

Using a headless CMS as kiosk software, digital signage like this can be updated with new content in real-time for more relevant and timely tourist information.

2. Burger King rolls out digital menu boards to 6,500+ stores

Using a headless technology, the fast-food giant can update menu items and pricing based on inventory in real-time and advertise new deals and promotions on-the-fly. These dynamic menu boards capture attention more easily while offering a more engaging dining experience.

3. IKEA launches an augmented reality catalog mobile app

Using IKEAs innovative AR app, customers can use their smartphone’s camera to capture an image of a room in their home and select items from the furniture company’s catalog to see how they’ll look. IKEA’s app and other similar AR apps let customers test-drive products before they buy in real-time.

The future Headless

The future of CMS is quickly moving away from traditional, database-driven systems and toward API-driven headless or decoupled systems.

Consumers are making use of more devices and channels than ever before, and brands simply have to meet them there in order to provide quality omnichannel customer experiences. Going headless is the simplest way to achieve that.

Steve Jobs had on marketing and advertising. Steve Jobs was the entrepreneur, inventor, and brains behind the rise of Apple, which poised Apple to become one of the most valuable brands and most successful companies in the world. A large part of Apple’s success is due to its marketing. Needless to say, Apple’s marketing has been successful. This is the view Steve Jobs had on marketing and advertising: For your marketing message to be successful and to build a powerful brand, you need to communicate values in your marketing, not just product features or benefits. When you do this you have to be very clear and have a single message.

The Apple co-founder hinted at how the internet would have an impact on “commerce” — this was before the term “e-commerce” had been coined, of course.

Steve Jobs most famous marketing quotes

• Make a Great Product

create an excellent product. From its performance, to the physical space each one occupies, the design, and the beautiful box it comes carefully wrapped in.product quality comes first and not just a great packaging and excellent marketing strategies. The key is that the product is excellent.

• Don’t Sell Products, Sell Dreams

Apple’s strategy involves selling their consumers a global package of dreams, personal experiences, and status, and it makes almost all other products go unnoticed if they don’t carry the Apple logo.

• Focus on the Experience

Focus on creating a universe of sensations, experiences, and values that the person gets when they buy your product. Analyze how it feels to use and buy your products, and think about what you need to improve, and what you need to focus on.

• Turn Consumers Into Evangelists, Not Just Customers

Getting the consumer to want to recommend the brand, and without being paid for it.

• Master the Message

You can have a great product but if communication fails, it’s like watching a stand-up comedian do a gig in a completely different language.

Jobs gave us some of the best speeches in corporate history. He preached against PowerPoint presentations, saying you only have to use them when it’s really necessary. Mastering the topic, the message, and knowing how to present it without visual aids, speaks much more than a cute drawing created with some elegant color scheme. For large groups, PowerPoint is excellent but Jobs hated when people brought in presentations into meetings, because he saw it as a sign that they didn’t completely dominate the topic they were presenting.

• Decisions Should be Made by a Group, Not a Committee

No wonder there aren’t any monuments of committees. Important decisions should be made by a group designated to decision making.  A small group who trusts in each other and in their instincts because they are all immersed in the company’s objectives. You should always encourage the team to discuss ideas, but then only leave those most suitable to make the final decisions.

• Find an Enemy

Make it clear who the enemy is, and try to get people to take a side.

Choosing sides is part of human behavior and was introduced as an idea by the French social psychologists Gabriel Tarde and Gustave Le Bon. The herd mentality or mob mentality is what happens when the collective consciousness occurs in a group of people influenced and pressured by the masses to adopt certain behaviors, follow trends, and/or purchase products. The desire to belong and to explain the disorder of the world makes consumers feel better about belonging to the ideology of a brand that matches their own thoughts and values. If you don’t stand up for what you believe in, you’ll go unnoticed.

• Keep the Design Simple, and When You Get There, “Simply it Even More”

It’s the essence of the coveted Apple products. No other competing product beats their level of simplicity. From the user experience to its aesthetic design and delicate work put in to make their products intuitive. So, one thing is absolutely clear: less is more.

• You don’t Have to be the First, but “You’ve Got to be the Best”

Even though other competition was already on the market, Apple took those same products and improved the user experience, navigability, weight, packaging, and distribution channels. They achieved better design, size, they listened, paid attention, and managed to design products that are super convenient to carry with you everywhere you go.

• Innovate or Die

Steve Jobs knew that the key was diving into the user experience and identifying what they need, and what they want. Thinking outside the box, and constantly providing products and services that meet those needs. Apple remains a precursor in the current.

Jack Ma

is a Chinese business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He is the co-founder and executive chairman of the Alibaba Group in 1999, a multinational technology conglomerate. As of January 2019, he is one of China’s richest men, as well as one of the wealthiest people in the world. Ma is a strong proponent of an open and market-driven economy.

A prominent business figure, Ma is seen as a global ambassador for Chinese business and as such is frequently listed as one of the world’s most powerful people by Forbes. He also serves as a role model for startup businesses. In 2017, he was ranked second in the annual “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders” list by Fortune. On 10 September 2018, he announced that he will retire from Alibaba and pursue educational work.

Jack Ma Career Advices:

-If you don’t Find a Good Job, Create it Yourself:

They always try to resolve the problems of the rest”. Don’t complain without any future expectation; always think in an optimistic way

– Look for Your Opportunity Where People Are Complaining:

It’s what he did himself. He saw the small traders complaining about not being able to sell their products abroad and he used the Internet to resolve this problem

-Keep clear what you want to do and have a good work team that believes in the project as much as you:

it’s fundamental to work with people who believe in the Project. For this reason, it’s also key that you tell them exactly what you want to do. Believe in your dreams and convince the team that it’s possible to reach them.

-For you Startup: an innovative spirit and a hard worker:

Novelty in a business model is fundamental. For Jack Ma, capacity isn’t everything. The decisions that are taken with an innovative sense are the most important.

Again, try not to be negative and think: how could I make this different? Or is there anything that can be done differently?. It’s necessary to think about this well to then start doing it.

As for the hard work, even in 1999 when the Alibaba Empire was still just a Project, Jack Ma told his team: “If we have that kind of 8am-to-5pm spirit, then we should just go and do something else”.

– Your business model has to be based on providing help to someone else. It’s only when other people are successful and happy that you will be able to consider yourself successful and happy:

The example is in sight. The small traders have always thanked Jack Ma for giving them the opportunity to sell their products abroad. Currently, the Alibaba Group’s sites (taobao, alipay, tmall y Alibaba) have more than 100 million buyers a day. These sales benefit an approximate 50 million small companies.

-Don’t think about the opportunities that are already spent:

An opportunity always exists. You only need to know how to discover it.

Regardless, for this Internet Empire the Network has a lot more potential to utilize.

– If you decide to start your own business, you need to know that you are giving up a steady income:

There are always margins of risk. It’s most likely that for a period of time you won’t gain money from your business. But it you truly believe in what you do then, you don’t have to worry.

– It’s never too late:

“Only when I was 40 years old did I start to know exactly what I wanted to do. I’ve never thought in my life I would like to be a businessman. All the other things I wanted to do I was rejected. I wanted to become a policeman and I was rejected, I wanted to be a waiter in KFC and I was rejected.”

– Unlimited opportunities:

“This world today is full challenges and opportunities, 2000 years ago full challenges and opportunities, and I’m sure 2000 years later full of challenges and opportunities. It depends on how you look at it. Young people say there is no opportunity, but I think that opportunities always lies in the challenges and in the complaints. If you can solve the challenge you will be successful”.

-Enjoy the journey:

“I think life a journey. You come to this world to enjoy life, to be happier and healthier. The day when you leave this world you wanna say I’m happy with my life, I’m healthy in my life, because if you are not healthy you will never be happy”.

– Find people smarter than you:

“At first I knew nothing about technology, I knew nothing about management. You have to find people smarter than you are.  And when I find them, my job is to make sure that smart people can work together”.

– Have a purpose at every age:

“When you are 20 to 30 years old, you should follow a good boss [and]join a good company to learn how to do things properly. When you are 30 to 40 years old, if you want to do something yourself, just do it. You still can afford to lose, to fail. When you’re 40 to 50 years old, my suggestion is you should do things you are good at. When you are 50 to 60 years old, spend time training and developing young people, the next generation. When you are over 60 years old, you better stay with your grandchildren.”

Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos Amazon CEO  was one of the first entrepreneurs to realize the potential of selling products on the internet, this Bloomberg Profile looks into how Bezos built Amazon inside his garage and now has his sights set well beyond online commerce. He has always believed that the growth of the Internet would overtake the brick and mortar industry.

If you’re interested in running your own business, there’s so much you can learn from him. Here are his top 10 marketing and business strategies:

• Dream BIG

When you’re setting your goals, think big and picture how you see yourself in the next few years. Having big dreams will give you the energy and excitement to keep chasing. Even if you don’t end up achieving that goal, you’ll be occupied with activities every day that will make you an improved person.

• Hiring is Key

The employees are the backbone of the company. They’re what keeps the engines running. Depending on your style of leadership and principles, always try to hire the best out there. You don’t want to end up with someone that doesn’t want to work towards your goals and vision.

• Dare to experiment when trying to create or market new products

This is a great quote by Bezos:

“If you double the number of experiments you do per year you’re going to double your inventiveness.”

Through experimentation, new innovations are born. It’s how companies stay competitive in the market. You have to keep finding ways to improve your product or introduce a new one into the market.

• You should invent… not the customer

As an entrepreneur, you should always be passionate about coming up with something new. It’s your responsibility and not the customers. If you ask your customers for their opinion, they will just tell you what they don’t like. They won’t exactly tell you how to do something in a different way.

No matter what field you’re in, you need to be brainstorming and experimenting. According to Bezos, inventing is one of the most important factors for him and his team at Amazon.

• Regret minimization framework

Living life as an entrepreneur or startup founder poses its many challenges. You’re going to be faced with choices and life-changing decisions. There isn’t a single method that works for everyone as we are all unique individuals. However, if you’re stuck and contemplating certain decisions, you could try out this mental framework.

• Put the magnifying glass on your customers

When you can identify the customer’s needs and problems, you’ll be able to build what is best for them. In turn, that will be what’s best for the company as well.

• The limitless potential of eCommerce

The eCommerce industry has been booming with the help of the Internet. Scalability, reach, and convenience has turned many shoppers into online shoppers. You can find just about anything on the Internet these days.

• Be frugal and thrifty

Especially when you’re just starting out, you have to be smart with money. You can’t be forking out cash on things that aren’t important. Every cent counts and must be used properly. And even when you’ve earned a good amount, always try to spend less than you make.

Here are some examples of Bezos being thrifty:

• His employees are not allowed to fly business class
• During business trips, his employees are put up in the Holiday Inn (2 people per room)
• He created an employee loyalty program to save money
• Lower margins, higher turnover

If you’re new to the business world and haven’t heard the term “margin”, it is the difference in price between the product cost and selling price. Depending on the way you want to model your business, you could either go for high or low margins. Many businesses prefer high margins because it means having to do less work.

Lower margins can result in having a higher turnover. A huge sales volume with small profits accumulates into a lot of money.

• Be on the frontlines with your employees

There are many leadership styles out there. Frontline leaders are doers. They’re able to do what their employees do. It is inspiring for many to see that their leader is willing to actively participate in daily work activities.

As a leader, your role is to create an environment that reflects your vision, mission, and values of the organization. You are setting an example that others will follow.

Amazon

What is Amazon?

Amazon is a firm of online commerce American based in Seattle. It is one of the giants of the Web, grouped under the acronym GAFAM, alongside Google, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft.

The initial activity of the Amazon company was the distance selling of books , before the company diversified into the sale of cultural products, then merchants. Today, some food products can also be ordered through Amazon.

Created by Jeff Bezos inJuly 1994, the company was listed on the NASDAQ inMay 1997.

The French subsidiary of Amazon was opened in 2000. In 2016, Amazon became the leading non-food distributor in France in terms of turnover.

In 2020, the company employs a million people worldwide and has established, in addition to the original American site, opened in 1995, specific sites in many countries.

Goods and services:

Amazon Dash, AmazonFresh  (en), Amazon prime, Amazon Web Services, Alexa, Amazon Appstore  (en), Amazon Drive  (en), Echo, Kindle, Fire tablets, Amazon, Fire TV, Prime Video, Kindle Store  (en), Amazon Music, Amazon Music Unlimited  (en), Amazon Digital Game Store  (en), Amazon Studios, Amazon Luna.

Amazon MarketPlace Platform

Since November 7, 2003 , Amazon also offers individuals, as well as specialized sellers, to put their own objects on sale, provided that they are referenced in the Amazon catalog, via the“  MarketPlace  ” platform . For France, Amazon levies a commission on the sale price, management fees, as well as a fixed commission per item, and also levies, in accordance with the law, a value added tax . InFebruary 2013, Amazon announces the unilateral 50% increase in commissions levied on the sale of cultural items. From the first january 2015, it

is the VAT rate of the country of establishment that applies to finalized transactions, further increasing the cost of the service.

Amazon Mechanical Turk

Amazon Mechanical Turk is a micro-work service launched by Amazon at the end of 2005. It is a web crowdsourcing platform that aims to have humans perform, for remuneration , more or less complex tasks. The tasks in question must be dematerialized  ; it is often a question of analyzing or producing information in fields where artificial intelligence is still too inefficient, for example the analysis of the content of images .

Amazon Video

Founded in 2006, Amazon Video is Amazon’s video-on-demand platform , available online in the US , UK , Japan , Austria , France, and Germany .

Amazon Studios has for its part produced several original programs broadcast since 2013 on Amazon Video now Prime Video

Amazon Lockers

Automatic lockers to make it possible to collect products ordered over the Internet have been deployed in shopping centers in France.

At the end of 2015, Amazon set up automatic lockers in Levallois-Perret and Villeneuve d’Ascq after having done so, initially, in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Freight

In march 2016, Amazon signs an agreement with the American aircraft rental company ATSG for the lease of twenty Boeing 767 cargo planes over a period of five to seven years. The goal is to reduce its dependence on logistics companies FedEx and UPS.

Amazon announced, the July 25, 2016, an agreement with the British government to set up a project to deliver small packages by drones. The three main authorizations obtained are to fly drones that are no longer within sight of their operator in rural and suburban areas, to have several automated drones operate by one person and to test the performance of sensors supposed to enable the devices. identify and avoid obstacles. If the project works, the packages can be delivered in thirty minutes anywhere in the world.

In december 2016, Amazon files a patent for the establishment of flying warehouses suspended by zeppelins to support delivery by drones

Amazon Go

In december 2016, Amazon opened its first supermarket food without cash , Amazon GB. Located in Seattle, near the headquarters of the company, it remains in the test phase for about a year, only to Amazon employees. Injanuary 2018, the store is open to the general public.

In july 2019, there are 13 Amazon Go stores in the United States: four in Seattle and Chicago, three in San Francisco and two in New York.

In July 2020, Amazon unveils its new cart concept, ” Dash Cart “, intended for Amazon Go stores and which automatically scans the items with which it is filled and avoids going through the checkout

Amazon Textiles

Amazon is present in the textile departments with its brands Goodthreads and Paris SundayAmazon Key

Amazon has launched a service that allows you to unlock your door remotely and watch whoever enters your home live. The device was marketed under the name Amazon Key , today Available in 37 US cities. The company also has other ambitions in the field of the new connected home market , directly competing with Google and its connected systems Nest Hello. Inmarch 2018, Amazon acquires Ring , a start-up specializing in connected doorbells equipped with cameras to accelerate the development of these new objects.

The Amazon Key system has been the subject of concern since cybersecurity research has shown its non-infallibility

Amazon Music

Amazon offers its Prime Music streaming music service as a way to generate subscriptions to the Prime service

E-Commerce

What is E-commerce?

E-commerce, also known as electronic commerce or internet commerce, refers to the buying and selling of goods or services using the internet, and the transfer of money and data to execute these transactions. E-commerce is often used to refer to the sale of physical products online, but it can also describe any kind of commercial transaction that is facilitated through the internet.

Whereas e-business refers to all aspects of operating an online business, e-commerce refers specifically to the transaction of goods and services.

The history of e-commerce begins with the first ever online sale: on the August 11, 1994 a man sold a CD by the band Sting to his friend through his website Net Market, an American retail platform. This is the first example of a consumer purchasing a product from a business through the World Wide Web—or “e-commerce” as we commonly know it today.

Since then, e-commerce has evolved to make products easier to discover and purchase through online retailers and marketplaces.  Independent freelancers, small businesses, and large corporations have all benefited from e-commerce, which enables them to sell their goods and services at a scale that was not possible with traditional offline retail.

Types of E-commerce Models

There are four main types of e-commerce models that can describe almost every transaction that takes place between consumers and businesses.

1. Business to Consumer (B2C):

When a business sells a good or service to an individual consumer.

2. Business to Business (B2B):

When a business sells a good or service to another.

3. Consumer to Consumer (C2C):

When a consumer sells a good or service to another consumer.

4. Consumer to Business (C2B):

When a consumer sells their own products or services to a business or organization.

Examples of E commerce

E-commerce can take on a variety of forms involving different transactional relationships between businesses and consumers,

as well as different objects being exchanged as part of these transactions.

Example: Amazon, Flipkart, eBay, Fiverr, Upwork, Olx, Quikr..

Advantages of E-Commerce

• E-commerce provides the sellers with a global reach. They remove the barrier of place (geography). Now sellers and buyers can meet in the virtual world, without the hindrance of location.
• Electronic commerce will substantially lower the transaction cost. It eliminates many fixed costs of maintaining brick and mortar shops. This allows the companies to enjoy a much higher margin of profit.
• It provides quick delivery of goods with very little effort on part of the customer. Customer complaints are also addressed quickly. It also saves time, energy and effort for both the consumers and the company.
• The convenience it offers. A customer can shop 24×7. The website is functional at all times, it does not have working hours like a shop.
• Electronic commerce also allows the customer and the business to be in touch directly, without any intermediaries. This allows for quick communication and transactions. It also gives a valuable personal touch.