Pricing Strategies that can Work Wonders for You

Ecommerce is a highly competitive trade. Online stores are neck to neck with each other. In such an environment you need to work out on pricing strategies to gain a substantial market base. We stress on the word ‘strategies’ as you will work out a model which is beneficial to you at the same time attractive to the customers. Pricing too low and you will be out of customers’ radar and pricing too high would mean very few sales. Here we shall take a look at some of the tried and tested pricing strategies. 

Know The Demand   

Even before you start with the pricing strategies you need to judge the demand of the products in the market. You don’t need to hire an expensive market research firm for this can use the social media or make a sample study among your friends and relatives.

Know Your Cost   

Before you price a product on your store you need to take into account the variable costs along with the price of the product. This includes cost of maintaining the site, shipping and your salary and that of your employees. The price of the product should cover all these expanses and still live you with some profit.

Positioning Yourself   

Are you going to position your store as a discount or luxury one? If you are aiming for the former category then you need to price your products lower than your competition even if they would be a marginal lower pricing. You can compare the prices in other stores using tools such as Google Shopping. To be a part of the luxury segment you will have to offer exclusive products or launch them before your competitors.

Once you know these three things you can start with the pricing strategies. Here are some of the pricing strategies that you can try.

• Cost Plus Pricing – This is the most popular pricing technique. Here you sell the product by adding a small pricing margin to the cost of good and variable cost. However keep in mind factors such as slump in sales while pricing.

• Target Return Pricing – Here you price the products keeping the return-on-investment (ROI) factor in mind.

• Penetration Pricing – Here you price the products lower than all your competitions to gain the market share. You might make losses in this so you need to strategies well to break even in time and sustain this pricing model.

• Pricing Based On Value – This model of pricing is purely based on the value that it creates to the customers. For instance if a product is priced $100 and saves customers $500 in a year they would consider it high on value. At the same time pricing something $100 where the customers know its development cost to be $10 is asking for too much.

• Pricing Challenge – Offer a pricing challenge to the customers where you offer them huge discount if they find products cheaper anywhere else. This is playing into their phycology. Only a few customers might take up the challenge while for the majority you have instilled confidence in their minds.

Author Bio:-

This post has been contributed by Mr. Ashish Mittal, General Manager – IT at Daffodil Software Ltd. Ashish has 10+ years of experience in web development and is managing magento ecommerce portals development nowadays. He can be reached on Facebook here.

Enterprise Sustainability Trends 2013

There has not ever been this much aggressive need for sustainability ever before, than it is now. With the natural calamities posting threats ever so often, it has now become the responsibility of each and every one to contribute towards the sustainability. Corporate houses have been rolled in, and their interests no long lie in only profit making and customer relationship. With the advent of C-suite executives, sustainability officers etc, the businesses are witnessing a brand new paradigm shift, towards the sustainability module. We dusted off the old books, skimmed through the present day trends, and here we are, with the 10 noteworthy sustainability trends which the world is already witnessing or is going to witness in the present year, 2013. 

-    Money still has the prime importance – Well, with so much stress being put on sustainability, you cannot just expect the business to turn into non profit organizations over night. It is still very much about the profits, about the bottom lines and also about the pink slips. The difference being the involvement of various metrics, such as risk management, compliance, cost reduction, revenue gains etc. However, getting the appropriate funding for the same could be a challenge. 

-    Sustainability takes center stage – Sustainability has now taken the center stage. Teams responsible for sustainability and preservation, working at different levels of the organization are teaming up to tackle sustainability in a much more organized fashion. The sustainability teams are now taking care of the facts and figures, and are being much more aggressive in the implementation of the sustainability module. With Financial officers becoming the pilots of the sustainability programs, sustainability has gained the chief status in the hierarchy. 

-    Renewed industry qualifications – companies are now asking the suppliers to renew the papers and include their energy efficiency and levels of carbon emissions etc in the documents pertaining to their industrial qualification. The “Green Reporting” is now a factor pivotal enough to make or break ties. 

-    Transformations becoming a part of the new emerging economies – the new and emerging economies are more prompt at accepting and inculcating the sustainability module in to their systems. With all the stress being laid on sustainability, the new and emerging economies are better poised to handle the same.

-    A yearly track of the sustainability reports – companies are taking the entire sustainability concept rather seriously and hence forth are keeping an yearly track of the efforts taken in the same direction. Earlier, the reports needed to be kept on an 18 months or 24 months basis. But, cutting short the time span to once a year, definitely goes to show how much serious the corporate houses are, when it comes to sustainable development. 

-    Social media gets prominence – Facebook’s likes and shares and Twitter’s tweets are getting the prominence as companies are increasingly trying to utilize the popular social media platforms, in order to increase the engagement. 

-    Energy conservation and competitive advantage – alternative sources of energy consumption are getting more precedence and companies are trying to scheme out ways to replace the traditional sources of energy with new, innovative and revolutionary ideas. In fact the new ideas are being encouraged, in order to get competitive advantages. Even issues such as water conservation etc are at the heart of such innovations. 

-    Datacenters are grabbing all the eyeballs – in an attempt to reduce all the energy reservoirs exhausted by the IT requirements of a company, the data centers have been introduced to the world. These datacenters are making smooth in roads in the lives of people, as shown by the online searches on that same, which has increased by the rate of 358% since the year 2008.  

-    Improving the transport system – the transport system is now being overhauled, in order to reduce carbon emissions and smooth track the supply chain initiatives. 

-    Ratings – Lastly, enterprises are continuously using green ratings etc, to showcase their performance on the sustainability sector to their stake holders and customers alike. 

Author Bio:
This post has been contributed by Mr. Ashish Mittal, General Manager - IT at Daffodil Software Ltd., a firm specializes in web development and cloud apps development services.

Android Malware and Security Concerns - How To Bypass This

The popularity of Android has also lead to lot of talk about the security concerns in the platform. This mainly comes in the form of malware. There are a lot of firms that are marketing Android security solution but the truth is these malwares can be avoided by following a few simple steps.

Android Malware Protection

Read Reviews   
It is wise to follow the crowd at times and thus you need to check out for the popularity and ratings of the apps on Google Play before installing them. If an app has seen large number of downloads you can trust it. Also read the reviews that the app has received. If the reviews are bad and talk about security concerns it’s wise to avoid these apps. 

Sideload With Care   
When it comes to downloading Android apps you can download these from other sites apart from Google Play. This process is known as sideloading. Google Play removes malicious apps but these sites may not follow suit. So you need to exercise caution while sideloading. By default this option is disabled on your Android device. You can enable it from Unknown sources check box in your Settings screen. But be careful while sideloading apps from third-party websites. This applies especially to pirated apps as they are one of the major sources of malicious elements in your Android device. 

Beware of Third-Party App Stores   
Third-party app stores are one of the primary sources of malwares as we have already mentioned in the previous point and thus you need to be careful with these stores. These stores don’t carry out comprehensive checks on the apps and thus apps that pose a security threat might be listed on these stores. There isn’t any mechanism to know if an app has some malicious element in it so you need to exercise caution while downloading it from third-party app stores. If you have an iota of doubt in your mind regarding these stores it would be wise to knock some other door for your app. 

High Risk Apps May Not Have Risks!   
If you are using an Android anti-virus these programs might categories some apps as ‘high risk’ which convinces you to stay away from these apps. But the truth is all these apps many not pose any serious security threats to your device. These apps merely seek permissions like viewing your phone’s device information. This might raise a privacy concern but this doesn’t necessarily mean they are harmful. So if you have installed an anti-virus in your Android device use your discretionary powers and not only rely on their findings. 

 

Be Careful of Phishing   
Phishing is another great concern on your Android devices. These mainly come in the form of emails which request for information such as your banking and credit card details. Also some redirect you to sites which look exactly like your online banking site. Never click on these links or enter your banking username and passwords as this might lead to hacking of your bank account.

Author Bio:

This post has been contributed by Ms. Sakshi Bhardwaj, an Android apps developer with Daffodil Software Ltd. You can reach her on Facebook here.

Top Android Medical Apps - What Doctors Must Use

If you are a doctor or in the medical profession you know that the patients and their loved ones trust you in the hour of crisis. Medical science has been on a continuous journey of self-discovery that has led to innovations in why people are treated. Naturally smartphones have also become a great tool to render better services to the patients. Here we shall take a close look at some of the Android apps which are a must use if you are in this profession.

Medscape

It is a leading medical app that is most used by physicians, medical students, nurses and other healthcare professionals for clinical information. Over 2 million people around the world have downloaded it. It offers you news and articles on 34 specialties in the field of medical science. You can also access information on more than 8000 branded and generic drugs, OTC drugs, and herbals and supplements. You will also get to see more than 600 step-by-step videos on different medical procedures. 

Diseases Codes ICD-10

Using this app you shall have access to International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10) at your fingertips. It has an objective and fast interface that allows you to make queries by name of the diseases and your code. The app doesn’t require you to be connected to the Internet to access basic information. 

Epocrates

Many medical professional consider this to be an essential drug reference tool. It has easy-to-learn features like the pill identifier, several medical calculators, and drug interaction checker making it a must have in anybody’s Android-powered smartphone. It also allows users to check the most common usage of the drugs and their doses cutting across different age groups. 

Calculate By QxMD

This aesthetically designed app has a smooth user interface and boasts of a collection of different medical calculators that is wide enough to satisfy any generalist and specialist. It is a essential tools in General Practice, Internal Medicine, Cardiology, Surgery, Obstetrics, Nephrology, Hematology, Orthopedics, Pediatrics, Gastroenterology, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Respirology and many more. 

PubMed Mobile

If you are looking read medical research papers there isn’t a better option than PubMed Mobile which boasts of more than 21 million citations for a wide range of articles and journals, with a main focus on the bio-medical and life science journals. Searching for a topic or diseases in this app is easy as users can easily narrow down their search queries based on their needs. 

Monthly Prescribing Reference

For many doctors around the world The Monthly Prescribing Reference (MPR) is one of the best drug reference apps. Here drugs are classified by treatment category and come along with prescribing notes and drug monographs outline useful information for clinical practice.

Apart from these there are many more apps on Android (or you can also get developed your customized android application by professionals) that are helpful for the medical practitioners. They are growing in popularity with time. In this day and age of smartphones help and suggestions are available at fingertips that allow medical practitioners render better services.

Author Bio:

This post has been contributed by Ms. Sakshi Bhardwaj, who is working as an Associate – IT at Daffodil Software Ltd. Apart from application development for android platform and writing about android’s latest developments, she is fond of movies and hanging out with friends. You can get in touch with her on Facebook here.

Reebok Fitness App - A Smart Way to Manage Workouts

With Nike and Adidas coming out with fitness apps, it was only a matter of time before Reebok entered this territory with its own set of fitness application. Named Reebok Fitness, this app is available on the Android and iOS platforms. This app is both, a calendar and a workout schedule that helps users keep track of their daily fitness regime and analyze it for a better perspective. Unlike other sports and fitness apps this doesn’t merely track activities but creates a truly varied exercise program. Users can customize the ratios of multiple activities over a given period and manually shift the schedule.

Getting Started With the App

Once the app is launched the users are prompted to create a new fitness program. They can set the duration of the program anything between 6 and 12 weeks long. The fitness program needs to have at least two activities among Walking, Running, Dance, Yoga and Training. Some users might find these activities a bit restrictive as they have to choose at least two out of the fixed list. However it is a well designed and developed app for users who fail to maintain their own workout schedule.

Once you have selected the options the app generates a daily fitness routine for weeks ahead which can be accessed using an account in the app. On the home screen the users are show the schedule for the next seven days. This allows them to track their daily activities and judge the progress of their fitness program. Users will also have access to videos and workout schedules from fitness experts on the official website.

To work according to the fitness program users need to tap on the screen for the corresponding day and a detailed fitness program appears. You will get an overview of the workout where all the activities to be performed are explained in detail. For example when the app prompts you to run if gives you details of the pace at which you should run and the breathing and rest videos. Once you are done with the activity you will have to tap on the ‘Yes I am done’ button.

Highlighting Features

On the top right-hand corner of the screen you will have access to some interesting features. You can set a timer for your running and other activities. There is also an ‘Achievements’ where you get a brief sense of your achievements with the fitness program with measurable statistics. You can track your completion rate, the best and worst performance in the workout schedule etc. To market its products Reebok has also included a store finder in the app where you can spot a Reebok store on the map or search for one using the Zip Code or the name of the city.

All in all this is a good app to get started with a fitness program. One of the biggest downsides of the apps is its inability to measure any of the activities using a body tracking device as it solely depends on user fed data. It comes free and is definitely worth a try.

Author Bio:

Sakshi Bhardwaj is working as Sr. Android Developer at Daffodil Software Ltd., a firm specialized in development of mobile applications for various platforms. Get in touch with Sakshi on Facebook here.

FileApp - A Perfect Solution for Managing Files on iPhone and iPad

Managing files on your iPhone and iPad can be quite complicated. This happens especially when you are sourcing different types of files into the device and are in habit of storing large number of documents, music and videos on your device. The inbuilt file management software works well in normal conditions where you need to store and access files on your device.

Problems crop up when files need to be transferred from a computer to your iOS powered device or between two iOS powered devices. In such a scenario you will need to complement the inbuilt file management mechanism with something special.

FileApp is one such solution which helps you effectively manage files. This app has seen thousands of downloads and has become very popular with the iPhone and iPad users worldwide. It is a very easy app to handle and takes little time for the user to get accustomed to it. The interface of the application is highly attractive and self-explanatory.

How To Get Started

Once the app is launched you can instantly start importing files by clicking on the (+) plus icon on the left hand corner of the screen. This app allows you to access files from third-party storage sources such as Dropbox, Google Drive and Box. These files can directly be downloaded into the devices by merely tapping the file name in the third-party sites and hitting ‘Done’. If you are planning to access files from a PC or Mac the app offers you a unique IP address. This IP address allows you to access these devices by typing it straight into the browser. Here you will be able to drag and drop files from the PC/Mac into your iPhone and iPad and vice versa. 

Grouping Files and Sharing

This app allows users to easily group different files and folders based on their types. All that a user needs to do is tap on the file and drag it to the preferred location within the application. With the help of this app you can easily share files with your friends and colleagues using the private and public Wi-Fi networks. The app also facilitates fast file transfers using the USB.

Accessing Files

You can also get a preview of the photos and videos on the app itself before you short them into different folders. However accessing PDF files is the most enjoyable experience on this application. You are aware how difficult it can get accessing PDF files on the iPhone. You can merely flick through the pages easily on this app which makes it a robust package.

The Verdict

Priced at $0.99 on the App Store FileApp is worth a deal thanks to the benefits it offers to the users. It only helps you manage the files in your iOS powered devices but does it really well. It is highly intuitive and engages the users. The only glitch sometimes it becomes unresponsive to finger gestures, but thousands of other apps face similar problems.

Author Bio:

This post has been contributed by Mr. Gaurav Sharma, Associate Manager - IT at Daffodil Software Ltd. Gaurav has 3+ years of experience in development of mobile applications and is managing development of apps for iPhone and iPad nowadays.

Magento Go, Enterprise or Community – which one is your cup of coffee?

There has not been any eCommerce platform which has received as many accolades and acclaim as the Magento Solution. Though it is pretty young in the circuit, having started in the year 2008, Magento has made the head turns and cash counters rolling. And now that it is under eBay, it has all the more become the ultimate destination for any merchant who wishes to sweep the online market off their feet (perhaps chair or couches or bed).

However the problem arises when we are expected to chose between its various versions. For the starters, let us inform you that there are primarily three different models of Magento – Magento Go, Community and the Enterprise one, and often it becomes a rather tricky task to choose between the three.

If you have been confronted with the same confounding and perplexing choice, we are here to help you out. Let us now discuss various models in detail and in the process, we believe you would be able to make the right choice of the Magento solution to opt for. We shall now start with Magento Go.

Magento Go!

The name definitely suggests something. Magento Go is a ready to use solution available, especially for all of the small scale business owners. It can give you a fully equipped and enigmatic online story quite easily; besides, you would not even need to install any software etc, in order to start using this solution. If you are one of those who need an online store, but do not want to suffer the technicalities, Magento Go is a ready made solution for you. Have a glance at some of its other features:

Design at your own whims and fancies – without any knowledge about the HTML or CSS, or any design knowledge as such, you can still design and create your own online store. It gives you a number of tools to decide the branding of your online store, pick up a logo, and use different text menus and buttons and a lot more. Besides, if you have a web designer at hand, Magento Go also provide you with the CSS editor to make further deep routed changes.

Easy product management and display – the product catalog is too wide to accommodate a vast variety of products. You may categorize and mark the products in the expansive catalog list and offer your visitors an effortless experience.

SEO friendly features – After all, it is the SEO that will help you get more visitors, right? Magento Go takes care of the SEO part as it has inbuilt SEO capabilities, allows you to change the URL, modify keywords, and creates sitemap and Google map amidst other things.

Customer engagement options – It seems like Magento Go wishes to all your work for you. After taking care of the design, product management and SEO of your online store, Magento Go also provides you with enough features, such as flexible coupons and banners etc to help you retain your customers.

And lastly, you can always enhance the functionality of your online store, by downloading specific plugins from Magento Connect.

Our Verdict – At such prices and with such functionalities, Magento Go definitely sounds like a great option, especially for such business owners who need a rather simple and sorted solution. Next in the queue is our take on the Enterprise version. Check it out.

Magento Enterprise

Without a doubt Magento Enterprise is an extension to Magento Go. A step ahead, it takes the services offered by Magento Go to an all new different level. Primarily designed for the mid level enterprises, Magento Enterprise solution offers the best of eCommerce features and functionalities. An exposure to wider audience, detailed product comparisons, personalized shipping, wider scalability, much increased transactions etc are just a few of the extra features offered by the Enterprise version.

The key role of Magento Enterprise is to allow you to provide you customers with a personalized experience. Hence, it makes segregations based on demographics and the nature of the shoppers, and also draw in the new customers through various offers. You get to display exclusive content, launch marketing campaigns, suggests offers and a lot more with the Enterprise version.

Certain features which are added to the Enterprise version, and were missing in the Go version are:

Reward Points
Gift Registry
Enhanced Customer Categorization and Targeting
Invitations, Events
Content Roll back

Even the payment is made easier. The version is totally secure for your customers to share the sensitive information. Besides, there is a brilliant range of payment gateways for them to use. And then of course, they can also pay by check and with a single page checkout, it is ensured that the entire payment is kept hassle free.

Our Verdict – if you have a big canvas and a bigger ambition, this is definitely the solution that you have been looking for. Lastly, let’s check out the Community version of the ace ecommerce publishing platform.

Magento Community

Lastly, enough of the assistance and the services provided by the Magento store, if you wish to take the development into your hand, download the free of charge community version and take off your online flight from there on. Usually you do not get the assistance in the community version, as against the assistance made available to you in the Go and the Enterprise version. But usually the users of Magento Community version are those web designing and development enthusiasts, who does not require any assistance. It is for them to alter the source code, add different features and attributes and give a new shame to Magento.

And it is not as if Magento completely abandons you in the community version. You still get a code level access to it and also, HTML 5 mobile theme is already integrated in it. Moreover, you get complete access to the themes, extensions, MCommerce, SEO friendly URLs, order management, multiple stores and multilingual support.

Our Verdict – if you trust your development and coding skills, go for it. It is brilliant, offers you a great deal of features and if absolutely free.

Author Bio:
This post has been contributed by Praveen Sharma, a Sr. Associate – Internet Marketing at Daffodil Software Ltd., a firm specilizes in magento web development. Get in touch with Praveen Sharma on Twitter at @i_praveensharma.

Cloud Computing - How It is Changing the Rules of Business?

Businesses have fast undergone change in the last two decades. With the advent of the Internet businesses started investing in information technology to gain the competitive edge. As reliance of digital communication increased businesses had to invest lot of capital on purchasing expensive servers and computers.

This gave the big businesses with large purchasing power an undue edge over their smaller competitors. However, cloud computing has completely changed the rules of the game and created a new ecosystem for information based industries. Businesses around the world are opting for this revolutionary technology which has added flexibility to business. In this brief write-up we shall take note of the advantages that Cloud Computing brings to businesses.

Reduced Server Cost

Perhaps the biggest advantage that Cloud Computing has to offer is in terms of reduced costs. Gone are the days when one would have to invest heavily on purchasing in-house servers and their upkeep. Today businesses are able to keep the same level of computing in their organizations by outsourcing their storage processing needs to the cloud servers. Also businesses don’t need to worry about upgrading their IT infrastructure every few years which used to be an expensive affair. Cloud computing is based on the concept of sharing resources which cuts costs substantially.

Reduced Infrastructure Cost

Not only did the cost of servers hurt business they also occupied large spaces and had to be maintained in controlled conditions. With Cloud Computing coming into the picture businesses no longer need to maintain expensive server rooms. They can operate from small offices or increase their headcount without having to worry about the office space. And all of us know how every inch of space can add to the operational cost of a business especially when it operates out of the upmarket areas. This has created level playing fields for small and big businesses as innovative ideas can materialize into big businesses from any corner in the world.

Flexibility of Work Location

In the last few years we have seen large number of people preferring to work from home rather than commuting to the office every day. This has not only added to the productivity but also reduced costs related to transportation and infrastructure for organizations. Cloud Computing makes it even more convenient for employees to work from home and access secured servers on the cloud.

In the cloud employees don’t need to be armed with expensive work-stations as all the data can be accessed from the cloud. The same project can be handled by a large team sitting in different locations across the globe without any hassle. No subscription to expensive VPNs is required for this purpose.

Cloud Computing is still at a very nascent stage and many more developments are expected to come into the picture in the next few years. When more businesses join the fray the costs will come down further adding to the competition which will eventually take the IT industry forward.

Author Bio:


Ashish Mittal is General Manager - IT with Daffodil Software Ltd. Connect with Ashish on Twitter at @mittals.