How to Create a Mobile-Friendly Website Shop

Remember when people actually debated whether e-commerce real? Since the change, the online merchant to hear the last laugh. It's happening again, only this time, the device is small enough to fit in your pocket. Mobile e-commerce will come with vengeance, and even in the holiday season, iPhone, Android, and other smartphone customers will give special consideration to the merchant site aims to accommodate them.

If you have any doubts, consider the numbers. ABI Research estimates that mobile online shopping in the U.S. more than tripled 2008-2009, reaching $ 1.2 billion. Projects worldwide company, the consumer cost $ 119 billion in 2015 shopping from their mobile phones, accounting for about 8 percent of all e-commerce activity. Juniper Research is more bullish, projecting that the total value of mobile payments will quadruple from $ 170 billion in 2010 to $ 630 billion in 2014.

In other words, the future of mobile commerce is conducted efficiently. So what can you do to prepare? The most important first step is to make your website mobile-friendly shopping. Your goal is to create a mobile version of your site inviting and easy to use as a regular site, considering the constraints of mobile devices. Demand for both sites should not come as a surprise to your website hosting service as it is a clear direction for the industry.

There are at least three "road" to create a mobile site. You can use a conversion utility that attempts to create a mobile version of your existing website, you can use one of several mobile website building tools that use a template to automate the process (in your hosting provider may offer offer one or both free), or you can work with experienced website designers in developing mobile sites. Whatever approach you take, the design criteria were the same: to create a site that will make your mobile customers to return.

Obviously Layout and Navigation Easy

The biggest difference between a smartphone and conventional PC's screen size. Diagonal screen size of the iPhone 4's 3.5 inch only. New Motorola Droid X, known for the "big" screen size, but with a 4.3-inch screen. Since every square inch of it, a clear layout that is easy to navigate is important. This is especially important on the home page of the car, with a core set of clearly marked links to the rest of your shopping site. Some of the best home page of the mobile site resembles a table of contents, the image of the company logo on the outside is kept to a minimum.

Use a somewhat larger font. It may seem counter-intuitive when the screen size is very rare, but your customers can find your site on the train or the crowd, and they usually hold the device, rather than putting it, such as laptop , on the table. Even the steadiest hand, the smartphone does not do well with 6-point.

It should also be simple site navigation, the mobile site visitors have a higher chance to be confused. Do not show too many levels of sub-pages, and each page, giving your customers a clear way to get back to your home page.

For small traders can not sell merchandise at a auction site, you may want to consider getting onboard, as consumers take mobile tools like eBay in droves. In fact, eBay expects to see $ 1.5 billion in Gross Merchandise Value transfer system by the end of this year. There are many opportunities for the mobile Web merchant. By offering customers the auction can be accessed from their mobile phone, retailers can see the main sales elevator.

Also must carry through e-mail as being simple, make sure that both of your correspondence and easy to read any links it to mobile devices.

Mobile Checkout and Bandwidth

Take steps to make your phone checkout a great experience. Since the mobile Web transactions are often carried out in public, people will feel even less secure about entering your credit card and other personal information. Integrating professional service checkout storing data online can make a big difference.

Beware of your use of the bandwidth of customers' by contraction of streaming, animation and video. Yes, it's possible to watch movies from your smartphone. However, AT & T, the exclusive carrier for the iPhone, has changed the game by offering cheaper tier - $ 15 per month instead of $ 30 - with lower bandwidth constraints. The moves, the other operators are expected to follow, is likely to increase the number of smartphone users, but users are more careful in how much data they consume.

You can also maximize the power of the mobile Web by connecting to other mobile sources. For example, if you want to give directions to your physical store, you can link to the mobile version of the mapping services like Google Maps or MapQuest. You can also take advantage of location-based social networking sites like Foursquare. When people "check in" to your store - telling their friends where they are - you can reward them with discounts and special.

These are some of the rules to a great start, but before we finish, let's talk about some exceptions to this rule. The first has to do with the inherent limitations of the mobile site, which can, for instance, featuring items that are less than a regular website. So it is a good idea to give mobile customers an easy way to access the regular home page, even if the design is not optimal for the small screen.

The other exception is the iPad. New Apple Tablet PC in a class by itself in the motion-recognition iPhone user interface, and, of course, much bigger than a smartphone but smaller than a laptop. Even so, the 9.7-inch screen of the iPad razor sharp, sufficiently large that most of the e-commerce website will work properly.

With so much to do to prepare for the holiday season, all of the instructions may seem like a tall order impossible. So at least, do this: Take your favorite smartphone and do some "window shopping" in your favorite e-commerce. That should tell you something about the state of the art for mobile shopping. Then visit your own site. Comparison will give a good sense of the future of mobile phones.

Silicon Valley Tech Giants Super Green Campus Plan

In spite of all the creativity that flows from Silicon Valley, the technology capital of America is not known for its iconic architecture. Startup is not yet sure of their future less than the millions in a structure that can outlast the company. Enterprises born in a dorm room or garage to rent office postgraduate generally observable in San Francisco or Palo Alto or take up residence in the cookie-cutter, one-or two-storey building industrial area around San Joseph. As Steve Jobs said the end of 2011, "The building in the office park can get boring very quickly." It seems that Apple (AAPL) design-obsessed co-founder of the others may have a lasting legacy in addition to gadgets his company produces trend. Because of the work presented plans for a new headquarters shaped like a giant spaceship to Cupertino City Council two years ago, some cash-flush technology companies, including Facebook (FB) , Google (GOOG), Samsung Electronics, and NVIDIA (NVDA), released a plan for a new campus monumental. Although each seems surprised himself, not surprising given the unique architecture of high-wattage talent used for projects that they all share the eco-consciousness is the most distinctive feature of the new Aesthetic of West Coast. "In the past, it was relatively easy for companies to throw some solar panels on the roof," says Doug Woods, co-founder of DPR Construction, a company that works on projects Apple and Google. He did not disclose the details of the plan clients' but said "some companies around here looking for a dark green." While no single project has broken ground, green is clear help from city government file documents and interviews with people people familiar with the plans. Apple wants to install enough solar panels and fuel cells to create new Norman Foster-designed headquarters in Cupertino fully energy-independent. On Facebook, commissioned Frank Gehry to create an extension to the existing West Menlo Park campus, the employee to escape the parklike roof complete with mature oak trees. Google, which is working with architect NBBJ, will restore eight acres of wetlands on the 42-acre property in Mountain View and is considering installing expensive systems to Recycle its own waste, according to four people familiar have a plan that does not want to be identified because the private plans. The company called Bloomberg Businessweek for public documents. Illustrated by NBBJ headquarters ArchitectsGoogle new this: wetlandsOutdoor recovery company acre park, which derided as the "heat island," was removed from all three campuses. In the new Apple headquarters, to rise to the site previously stored (HPQ) Hewlett-Packard computer division, the early bird to grab one of the 2300 places under construction 2.8 million square . Is an additional 5,800 parking spaces in the structure at the southern end of the property, about a quarter mile away (no word yet on whether shuttle service offered). In the new West Campus of Facebook, previously occupied by Tyco Electronics (TEL), the driver will stow their cars in the ground floor of the building of 425,000 square meters. The company's plan to build a tunnel under the Bayfront Expressway transferring employees from one wing to another, according to documents filed with the planning commission. Most of the existing asphalt will be replaced with green plants, with emphasis on drought-resistant native species. Five of the nine buildings in the Google campus in San Francisco Bay along the coast will have a green roof garden, which reduces both heating and cooling costs. Facebook is to avoid the traditional mix of grasses and small shrubs to support a full grown tree, which will require as much as four feet of soil laying on top of building a quarter mile. A canal park will keep warehouse-style structure display. "From not so far, it would appear like the wooded hills instead of building," said Katie Ferrick, head of Menlo Park Planning Commission.Illustration Gehry Partners LLPFacebook this extension: The roof has a hiking trailsApple Plan to Plant 6000 Trees 176-acre property, from traditional oak and eucalyptus for apricots, pears, and of course, apples. The piece de resistance is green wooded grounds (bloggers speculated that the space is large enough to accommodate three football fields end-to-end). Instead of just relying on thin, nursery-bred specimens, the company said it also will plant 108 trees to stand for, their age size, or unique. Finding mature specimens requires several detection of presence, office parks, and other local, said Peter Sortwell, CEO Hayward (California) based Arborwell. Cost of planting a tree full of single adults can run from $ 50,000 to $ 100,000, said Sortwell, which counts Apple as a client but did not disclose whether the company was tapped to work on the project. Google, which plans reviewed by the city of Mountain View, is considering installing so-called blackwater recycling system that will run all the water, including waste, through a series of tank treatment so it is clean enough to be sprinkled on the lawn or pipe into the San Francisco Bay. The Blackwater recycling is too expensive now makes economic sense, said Ian MacClaren, director of business development at Southland Industries, mechanical engineering company in Union City, Calif. "story is good citizenship, more than anything," he said. The three projects will use some prefabricated construction, with parts of the building, perhaps the whole bathroom fully furnished office or bank complete with carpet and curtains, built in the factory and delivered to the site, said sources familiar with plans of the company. "This approach, which only came into use in the U.S.," could shave 20 percent of the construction schedule, and time means money, "said Bill Fleming, president of Skanska USA Building, a subsidiary of Swedish construction giant is one of two general contractors on Apple headquarters.Of course, all this is just a plan to plan. Many clients start with an ambitious goal, but to measure again the costs become apparent. "You have to be careful about distinguishing between aspects of public relations and the real economy," said Flemming. He noted that none of the companies committed to make substantial investments required to achieve LEED platinum certification, the highest level, which is widely accepted code set by the Green Building Council. In a proposal to the Cupertino City Council Apple, the company said it is aiming for gold certification level and the project was little doubt exceed all state and local efficiency requirements.There of the green building industry will have hands full with projects generated. Google and Facebook we want to finish work on their new facility in 2015, while Apple CEO Tim Cook repeal move-in for 2016. "Finding the workforce has become a major issue," said MacClaren Southland, noting that contractor in the area was busy with several large commercial projects, including a new stadium for the San Francisco 49ers and the 1.1 million-square-foot Samsung research center. "Boom going on around here every four or five years, and it feels like the biggest since 2000 and is the largest ever." Bottom line: In the capital of American technology, grotesque office park gives way to typical and green-company headquarters.

The Indie Release of capitalism

Here's the shocking truth: occupy Wall Street and Tea Party actually agree on something. They both hate crony capitalism, and they both love Steve Jobs. If this sounds strange, let me add another curious fact: Almost all of my students at the New School in New York, where I teach courses in creativity and capitalism, want to start their own company. The New School celebrated a bastion of lefty thinking, going back to 1930 and '40s. My students want to become entrepreneurs. They want to Kickstarter, kickass entrepreneurs. Students who it would belong to what I call Indie Indie Capitalism.I use the term deliberately to reflect the new sharing many distributive economy and social structure of the independent music scene and also the cost of system . Indie band hyperlocal, indie and post-capitalism is a global, local economic phenom (I think the 3D printing, locavore food, and new product crowdfunding). Indie über capitalist urban culture also fed from the energy / business city, New York, Portland, Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Austin. And they, of course, super-participatory. Indie Capitalists believe all of our work, there is no clear boundary between consumer and producer, investor and shopper. We all them.There capitalist Indie many of us. Breakthrough restaurant Chez Panisse organic Alice Waters has served as a model for the movement of the "resource-local" food. Blue Marble Ice Cream, "Made in Brooklyn," using only local New York State Dairy Cattle and implements people from downtown. Chrysler Group tapped indie culture when Wieden + Kennedy getting to produce ad "imported from Detroit", a song by Detroit born Eminem.My capitalist entrepreneur Elon indie favorite animal, co-founder of PayPal (eBay) . He handcrafting Falcon rocket and Dragon capsule take people and cargo to the International Space Station, and even Mars. SpaceX company integrates creative, creation, and capitalism. Also another company, Tesla Motors (TSLA), which assembles and sells all-electric sports car and four-door sedan of the old capitalism factory.Indie California has three basic principles: • Creativity generate economic value . Being creative is the source of income. Yes, you can squeeze more efficiency out what's there, but gave us creativity originality, which translates into profit margins and huge market • creativity. Drive capitalism. In recent years we have victimized the harmful results of "creativity" is applied to the financial sector (mortgage-backed securities, for starters). What we lose sight of is that the dimensions of creativity really make something of value to be sold in the market are the very heart of our economic system. This is the real generator net new jobs, wealth and income taxes. • Creative destruction is essential for economic growth. Crony capitalism, which relies on power and political monopoly, is contrary to business capitalism. A faster cycle of birth, growth, mortality, and the company increased creativity, economic value, and the contours of the growth of the indie capitalism that is just the scene. Change from time to time, as my own students and millions of others to develop a new economic system. But in re-connecting the creativity of capitalism, we have something to expect.

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BBW50 The Bloomberg Businessweek ranks the top 50 companies on how well they do and how well they do with analyst expectations. Half of the ranking is based on past performance: risk adjusted return of their sharing one and five years. The other half is based on the prospect: Recommendations analyst forecasts and earnings growth. Companies at the top of the list are both strong track record and high expectations from Wall Street for future growth.

The U.S. economy likely grew After all, Thanks to Oil

There's big news here and in other places after the government reported on January 30 that the U.S. economy shrank in the fourth quarter.Never mind. A little over a week later, a surprisingly large number of prominent trade economists now predict that the government will revise its estimate for gross domestic product in the final three months of 2012 in positive territory. The Commerce Department said the trade deficit shrank 21 percent to approximately $ 39 billion trade gap smallest since January 2010. Oil is the biggest factor. In the U.S. a barrel of imported crude fewest in nearly 16 years, while fuel exports rose.Commerce Bureau's actually Economic Analysis releases first quarterly GDP growth estimate just a month after the quarter ends, so forced assumptions and extrapolation to fill in missing data. The accuracy of the estimates improve further information arrives.Economists quickly integrated the new numbers in their estimates of GDP. The Macroeconomic Advisers (short) estimates that the economy grew at an annual rate of 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter. "The U.S. trade balance improved dramatically at the end of last year," wrote UniCredit (UCG) Bandholz economist clients.Wait damage, though. That was not the end of the matter. Shortly after placing better-than-expected trade data, the government released a worse-than-expected wholesale inventory data. Macroeconomic Advisers says' Ben Herzon including inventory tends to reduce the estimated growth of about 0.4 percent to 0.5 percent. Barclays (BCS) estimates 0.3 percent. Written by JPMorgan (JPM) Chase economist Daniel Silver to clients: "Our estimate tracking 4Q GDP growth is now at 0.2%." Net change tend economy probably will not actually shrink in the fourth quarter after all. On the other hand, it does not grow much, either.

Disappointing Housing Data ... Again

So the number of new housing is kind of bad: 654 000 new units started in March, 5.8 percent below the revised February figure. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg were expecting something higher. The median forecast of 82 who ventured prediction 705,000. Even a lowball estimate, 670,000, is too high. It's a rare economic survey where the greatest bear is not too showy. Obviously we will not be fooled again housing: Just when it looked like he got out of bed, the pain lasting recovery rolling with some phlegmy numbers.But how we have failed? Housing starts last month were 10 per cent higher than the previous year. And building permits were strong, up 4.5 percent from February and 30 percent higher than they were a year earlier. Permit amounts of data are probably more reliable too, compared to the number of starts that tends to get choppy significantly altered. Of course, it's easier to apply to a building permit to start building thing.So away from new housing data both seem to be goosed by unseasonably warm temperatures the past few months which everyone knows. "I think time will give us a big lift," said Joe LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank (DB), which estimated that 725,000 homes started in March.Betting the time can be confusing, though . Once you start depending on it, it becomes reliable. "What do you think is the effect of time on the previous numbers suddenly do not exist in the data of March," said LaVorgna. It turns out that instead of creating new economic activity, the time may well just pull proceed, steal from spring and winter to give. That seem to be part of the story behind the low employment in the U.S. last month number.Julia Coronado, chief North American economist for BNP Paribas (BNP), thought the number of housing starts will go one of two way: "It's either going to be good in" good upside or downside. Coronado reverse selection, forecasting 720,000 new beginning. "This is the warmest March on record. We think that probably means an early breakthrough in activity, "he said. At the same time, after falling as warm and warm winter record when many countries have never freezes, construction work has never got shelved. "So we certainly will not see a spike at the beginning of spring we usually see in March." Among them are colored not surprised Barry Ritholtz, the "dismantling Housing Recovery" series just finished, fairly intensive . Bearishness continue Ritholtz housing can be summarized as follows: for there are still unsold homes on the market too much, they are still too expensive for first time buyers, still more foreclosures down the pike , and renting is a good option for people too much, compared with owning.Which brings us to the final piece of the puzzle: multi-family housing. Many new homes built over the past few months has persuaded a multi-family units: apartment buildings, condominiums, duplexes, all underbuilt during the housing boom. Some people believe that the U.S. is still not nearly enough to build rental units, especially given the high cost. That makes it one of the more disturbing lines in March began to report more disturbing: Buildings with five or more units fell by 20 percent. Reading too much to improper exercise, especially when the percent change for the whole set of data is a margin of error of plus or minus 15.6 percent points.Still, not everyone reads the numbers as bad.Avery Shenfeld, chief economist at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM), he allowed the robust data to refute the arguments warm weather, and construction will grow throughout the year. Of Shenfeld, an estimated 675,000 housing starts, housing truly believe will contribute to GDP this year, and who can do it, despite rejection in a row because December.Still construction spending, even warm housing bulls their enthusiasm. "It's not a big recovery in construction we wait. It just crawled out from under a low level of homebuilding, "said Shenfeld. "However, mini-bounce has begun."