Consolidating Your Technology Stack for Your E-commerce Store in Australia

Introduction

With the growing popularity of e-commerce businesses worldwide, customers have now started having higher expectations when shopping online.

Fortunately, even the tech industry has amped up its game, and now, there are technological solutions for every step of the order fulfillment process. However, while technology has made everything more manageable, it is not always easy to pick the right technology stack that can perfectly serve your requirements.

Let’s explore what a technology or tech stack is and how it impacts the success of your e-commerce business.  

What is a Tech Stack?

In simple words, a tech stack is an intricate combination of tools, applications, software, programming languages, and frameworks that combine to form the skeleton of a mobile application or website. Broadly speaking, there are two types of tech stacks: front-end and back-end. 

Front-end tech stack- As the name suggests, front-end tech stacks are those tech tools that face the client. This tech stack makes a website pleasing for customers to use and scroll through. 

Back-end tech stack- Back-end tech stacks are responsible for keeping websites and applications functional. These tech stacks are server-facing and interact with each other to keep the website or application up and running.

Importance of a Tech Stack for E-commerce Businesses

Tech stacks form the foundation of any website and hence, need to be taken seriously. Here are a few reasons why a tech stack is important for your e-commerce business: 

1. Tech stacks determine how efficient your website can be in terms of speed, security, upkeep, and so on.
   
2. Storage of data related to your business is managed by your tech stack. 

3. A wide array of solutions, from order placement to reviews, can be managed using the necessary tech stacks. 

4. Front-end tech stacks dictate how appealing your website is and impacts the overall user experience. It can directly influence how much online traffic you generate and the entire shopping journey.

5. Tech stacks are also crucial for making websites functional and perform as efficiently as possible. 

Furthermore, consolidating your tech stacks proves highly beneficial for your e-commerce business. This is how: 

1. Simplify complex programs and reduce redundant apps 

2. Enable businesses to utilize platforms that are multi-functional

3. Empower growth with powerful apps that elevate your business website and offer an engaging experience

Best E-commerce Website Platforms

Several Australian e-commerce platforms provide businesses with a ton of helpful features for displaying their products online. The three most popular sites in Australia are:

• Shopify- For years, Shopify has been a well-known and reliable e-commerce platform, with features such as daily revenue reports, invoice generators, and intuitive inventory management. This platform also has the option for multichannel marketing and has a super fast response time, making it easy and satisfying to use. 

• Wix-  Best known for providing excellent marketing solutions that include six marketing apps and live social media feeds, Wix is the go-to for brands looking to get their name out in the market. To add to its excellence, Wix also provides SEO tools that further encourage business growth and popularity. 

• BigCommerce- BigCommerce is ideal for enterprises with complex inventories that must be managed and taken care of. BigCommerce also provides multichannel selling solutions that allow businesses to scale up with ease. 

Best Add-ons for E-commerce Sites

A number of add-ons can make your e-commerce site very appealing to buyers. Here are some of the cherry-on-top features that can enhance your online store: 

• User Experience- Of course, user-friendliness will dictate how well your website is received by an audience. So, you must focus on incorporating some add-ons to make your visitors’ experience smooth and hassle-free.
  
  For example, you can add auto-complete in the search tool of your website to save customers time, especially when it comes to submitting shipping information. This makes the purchase process quick and avoids having customers key in information over and over again.

• Wish-list- A wish list may sound like a simple, functional tool, but it allows businesses to connect with their customers better. When a buyer is simply browsing your online store, they can choose to add some items they might buy later in their wishlist.
  
  This allows the customer to have an organized list of things they want, and you to create a tailored ‘Things You Might Like’ section for the said buyer. 

• Chatbot- Unlike a physical store, online stores are open 24/7. So, buyers can drop in anytime to make a purchase. Likewise, buyers can have a query anytime. However, it might not always be feasible for companies to have customer support working 24/7.
  
  Therefore, the best alternative would be to have a chatbot that can answer most queries (if not all) and satisfy your customers. 

• Security- This one is more of a must-have than an add-on for reputed e-commerce platforms. Customers who shop online provide a lot of their personal information, which needs to be protected at all times. With add-ons like a firewall, SSL certificate, and two step-authentication, you can ensure a secure shopping experience for your customers. 

• Product recommendation- Product recommendation allows you to upsell and cross-sell products, thus boosting your sales and popularity. In fact, some of the biggest e-commerce platforms profit a significant percentage just by using the product recommendation add-on correctly.

Best Payment Add-on

The Australian e-commerce market has several active payment add-ons or gateways that facilitate easy transactions from buyers to sellers. Some of these payment add-ons are:

• eWay- Launched in 1998, eWay is one of the most popular payment gateways in Australia. Some of the critical features of eWay are a built-in fraud detection system, good customer support, secure and robust APIs that can be paired with almost all websites, and real-time risk-rated transactions. 

• SecurePay- Another trusty name in the world of payment gateways is SecurePay. SecurePay has an advanced fraud detection feature, batch processing of payments, a customizable payment page, and a free trial, all of which make it very popular.

• Square- Square has quite a few unique features contributing to its rising popularity in the Australian e-commerce market. Square is best known for providing end-to-end encryption, next-day business deposits, zero fee for refunds, competent reporting tools, and instant deposits for a relatively small cost.

• WorldPay- WorldPay is great for businesses that serve a significant international market, as it supports 126 currencies and is active in 146 countries. Furthermore, this payment gateway is also very secure and has a live dashboard that offers a real-time view of orders. 

• Pin Payments- Pin Payments has been active since 2011 and has a straightforward interface. Their APIs are pretty easy to integrate and provide good customer support, fraud protection, and recurring billing services. 

Best Security Apps for Your E-commerce Website

Your website needs good security, as buyers will use their personal information to make purchases. Here are some security apps you can use to protect your buyers in the Australian e-commerce market:

• Traceable AI- Traceable AI is ideal for those looking for end-to-end security for APIs. This security app identifies a website’s APIs, evaluates the risk posture, and prevents attacks on APIs that can lead to data misuse. 

• Acunetix- Acunetix is one of the most popular security apps for online businesses in Australia. This software detects and reports several vulnerabilities that may plague a website. Furthermore, it also provides vulnerability management features that allow its clients to effectively tackle their security shortcomings. 

• FortiWeb- Unprotected APIs and web applications are two of the most vulnerable spots for online e-commerce businesses. With FortiWeb’s AI-enhanced security features, enterprises can rest easy knowing their data is secure. Additionally, FortiWeb provides tailored protection for different applications, making their security more robust and reliable.

• Imunify360- Imunify360 provides many security features, such as real-time antivirus protection, intrusion detection system, network firewall, prevention and detection system, and patch management, in addition to regular security measures, making it quite comprehensive.

Marketing Solution

Even marketing can be made easier with the appropriate tech stacks. Starting from managing social media to SEO, a good marketing tech stack can be used to do it all. Some steps to build a marketing tech stack are:

1. Understanding your marketing goals and strategies.

2. Highlighting the challenges faced by your marketing time in their daily task execution. 

3. Creating a budget for your marketing tech stack.

4. Enumerating the tools, you would need for an efficient marketing tech stack. 

5. Considering non-marketing tools like data sync project management software that you can add to your marketing tech stack.

6. Analyzing your marketing tool tech stack and its efficiency once it is in use. 

A few examples of marketing tech stacks that can greatly improve your e-commerce website are:

• Heatmap for better conversion optimization- Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is a method in which companies use analytics data to improve engagement on their website. In other words, heatmaps can be used to understand what buyers coming to your website want and then provide them with that. Heatmaps are a form of a visual summary that graphically represent any form of data with the help of different colors. 

For instance, you can have a mouse movement heat map to get an idea about how users move their mouse over your page and then deduce how users navigate and scroll through your website. This can also be used to see how often users go for the ‘Add to Cart’ or ‘Buy Now’ option on your e-commerce store. 

• Exit pop-ups- Exit pop-ups are best described as a last effort to stop customers from leaving your website. When customers don’t find anything of interest on a website, they tend to leave. This is when an exit pop-up makes its appearance. These pop-ups usually cover the entire screen and display information about any new product launch, insider program, or upcoming exciting event. It has been observed that exit pop-ups effectively tackle exits and bounce rates by keeping buyers engaged. 

• E-mail marketing tools- E-mail marketing tools are an easy and cost-effective way to reach out to your customers and keep in touch. Additionally, these tools can also be used to boost sales, reduce cart abandonments, and increase brand awareness. Furthermore, with automated e-mails, you will not even have to worry about taking out time to tailor-make e-mails for individual customers. 

Using Customer Rating and Reviews

Customer ratings and reviews help establish the credibility of your e-commerce website. With the right technology stack, you can have positive ratings and reviews work in your favor and boost your credibility in the market. 

Apart from the typical customer review box, you can make use of automated survey sheets that will be mailed to your customer for them to fill in.

Subsequently, you can combine the information from such surveys and use your tech stack to develop graphs to better project how well (or poorly) your company is doing. This also helps enterprises understand where they should improve and how to stay relevant in the market by constantly evolving and adapting.

Noteworthy Plugins

Quite a few plugins simplify operations for businesses and help buyers shop online. Here are a few of them to help improve your e-commerce business:

• Wishlist Plus- Wishlist Plus is a plugin for Shopify websites to offer their customers a wishlist feature. Furthermore, customers can also sync their wishlists across devices for ease of use. 

• One-click social login- Another Shopify plugin is a one-click social login. This plugin allows buyers to skip the tedious registration process by allowing them to log in through any of their social media. 

• Plug-in SEO- Good SEO influences the ranking of e-commerce websites. Hence, businesses can improve their headings, title tags, meta descriptions, keywords, and so on with the Plug-in SEO plugin offered by Shopify. 

• Cart recovery for WordPress- Another famous website builder is WordPress. This website offers a ton of handy plugins, one of which is cart recovery. With this plugin, you can track abandoned carts and send an automated mail to your customer, prompting them to come back and finish their checkout.

• Relevanssi- This plugin offered by WordPress allows businesses to provide a search bar that shows results based on relevance rather than date. Furthermore, you can search for documents using just one term or multiple words or phrases. 

Conclusion

Overall, quite a long list of technological solutions in the form of software, plugins, and add-ons exist to help build a complete tech stack for your e-commerce business. With the right components, your tech stack can be a powerful tool that significantly influences your success in the Australian e-commerce market.

By partnering with Locad, your e-commerce businesses can simplify your order fulfillment across borders, allowing you to focus on driving sales and strategic initiatives. With Locad’s comprehensive solutions, you can optimise your operations, enhance customer satisfaction, and achieve greater efficiency in your e-commerce business. Experience hassle-free logistics with the best fulfillment center in Australia today.