Category: Miscellaneous

25 Companies That Have Revolutionized Online Sales

Posted on by probytesnextjs

With over thousands of companies competing with each other in the same niche, innovative ideas are the one which always comes to the rescue.

By using new technology and digital advances, some companies completely changed their destinies to become some of the well-known companies across the globe.

Here are 25 companies that revolutionized their online sales:

1. Brooklinen

Brooklinen is a luxury bedding company that was started in 2014 in Brooklyn, New York. Rather than keeping the prices of their products too high, they kept the prices much lower, so that everyone can afford it. The usual cost of bedding set for a queen-sized bed is $300 to $400 but Brooklinen sells at $179 only.

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2. Stitch Fix

By making personal shopping accessible, Stitch Fix takes into consideration that women of the modern world are constantly busy and don’t have to browse through websites. Instead Stitch Fix tells its customers to fill an elaborate questionnaire and send them a customized box of five clothing items.

3. Starbucks

Started in 1971, Starbucks dreamed of starting an online shop even before many thought of the idea. Today, in the United States one out of four Starbucks customers order their coffee online.

4. Ollie’s Bargain Outlet

Ollie’s Bargain Outlet buys surplus products from other companies and sells them to customers at lower prices. It also purchases undamaged products from companies that are burnt down or liquidating their assets.

5. Dollar Shave Club

The Dollar Shave Club saved hundreds and thousands of dollars for men by selling one dollar disposable razors. They have a subscription box system, very cost-effective, and convenient.

6. Sephora

Sephora is leading in interactive design. It has developed a technology that helps customers apply makeup on their face virtually. It saves tester products from being used by window shoppers and saves the effort of wiping off the makeup afterwards.

7. ASOS

ASOS is one of the fastest growing online fashion markets as it puts over 4,500 products on its e-store every week. The fashion retailer has aced the supply chain game by opening production factories closer to their key markets, therefore, reducing the time taken to deliver products to the customer.

8. Elf Cosmetics

Everyone likes dressing up and putting makeup but not everyone can afford costly brands like MAC. There’s Elf Cosmetics for these people since it makes pocket friendly but quality makeup, which lasts long and doesn’t start any reactions.

9. Warby Parker

Imagine someone asking you five questions and finding the most perfect glasses for you and that also cheap! Yes, Warby Parker is the epitome of convenient shopping. They send you five pairs of glasses, you try them, and keep the ones you like and return the rest.

10. Wayfair

A simple “search with photo” option has helped Wayfair one of favorite online furniture shops in the US. After customers upload the photo, Wayfair finds the most similar looking one from their inventory.

11. Casper

Casper sells mattresses online and is delivered in tiny boxes making the mattress easy to lift and move around. It is vacuum packed, so once it is delivered you can lay it on your bed, and then cut open the plastic. The mattress will regain its shape.

12. Walmart

Walmart is trying its best to make grocery shopping entirely online. It does have an online store and so many people, especially the working class, are using the service to its maximum ability and making their lives easier. A person picks these products for you from the store and is delivered to your doorsteps the next day.

13. Bonobos

Bonobos was recently bought by Walmart and there’s a good reason why it is a worthy investment. Instead of having outlets, Bonobos has guideshops, which you can visit and try on clothes. With the help of the assistants there, you can order them, which are then delivered to your doorsteps.

14. Apple

Apart from making state-of-art phones and other devices, Apple just recently started Apple Pay. In just a year, it surpassed PayPal, which was started more than 10 years ago. The transaction volume grew by 450 percent from 2016 to 2017.

15. Adidas

Adidas is making the dream of owning 3D printed customized shoes a reality for people. Adidas has partnered with Carbon, which uses photosensitive resin to make the pair of shoes that takes two to three hours to make.

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16. Sweetgreen

Salads are too boring for most of the people but wait until you eat at Sweetgreen. The salad bar has 67 outlets around the US and sells $10 salad bowls that are lip-smacking good. The greens and other ingredients are organic, which makes it a favorite among health enthusiasts.

17. Blue Apron

Delivering restaurant-style meals at the your doorsteps, Blue Apron has meals for two and four option. They send all the ingredients in packed in exact measurements. Each meal costs $10 for two and $20 for four.

18. Instagram

Online shopping is easy but Instagram shopping is even easier. Instagram has started the marketplace, using which shops can tag the price of the products they are selling. By tapping the Shop Now option, users can head to its online store and purchase the product.

19. Lidl

Lidl is German grocery store in the US that sells high quality food products at almost 50 percent of the retail price. Even though the products are limited, Lidl is giving a tough competition to big American retail brands like Target and Walmart.

20. Peloton

Going to a class for exercising is so boring, but you promise you’ll exercise if you can do a spin class in your living room? Peloton offers an urban solution by selling a stationary bike that live streams spin classes and pre-recorded classes as well. The bike is worth $1,995.

21. ModCloth

ModCloth sells plus-size clothing, which is fashionable, unlike other stores that make boring and plain clothes. It was bought by Walmart in March, 2017 and has surely increased the retailer’s value.

22. Aerie

Aerie is a strong lingerie brand that is considered as a threat to Victoria’s Secret. Unlike the world famous brand, Aerie doesn’t airbrush its models and has caught the eye of every woman in the US.

23. TJ Maxx

TJ Maxx gained popularity during the Great Recession of 2008 when it brought in discounts all year round. That’s what everyone wants, doesn’t it? Affordable clothing all year round so that your pockets don’t grow holes after shopping at Macy’s or Nordstrom.

24. Amazon

Amazon’s Prime Wardrobe lets you try clothes, shoes, and accessories before buying them and more the products you decide to keep, the greater discount you get on your checkout amount. One of the other services that make Amazon a favorite in the US is same day delivery.

25. Ulta Beauty

Ulta Beauty offers salon services in their stores so that customers can buy the products that were used on them if they like it. The service makes everything every convenient because instead of going to two different places for getting your hair done and buying shampoo, you can get it in one place only.

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Most of these were unique yet straightforward techniques that caught customers’ eyes because of its user-friendly feature and convenience. Today, these companies have become an important part of every person’s life.

7 Amazing Innovations That Will Alter The Future Of Online Stores

Posted on by probytesnextjs

Platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, ebay etc. have changed the way brands reach out to you. It is expected that e-commerce market might cross $50 Billion mark by the end of 2018. Increased internet penetration and mobile users will mark the beginning of lot of opportunities in e-commerce market in the days to come.

Since the market is getting bigger and bigger it is obvious that new technology and innovation will appear to offer better user experience.

Let’s have a look the most important ones.

1. Augmented reality

You have had experiences with products that you buy and find it not as expected or as you have found it online. Gone are the days when you have to go through such negative experiences. Now you can visit the virtual store, try out the products that interest you. For example, you are buying furniture of a particular dimension. You can check whether it fits into the space you are planning to place it into. Now that is something that is going to enhance your shopping experience. The possibilities of augmented reality are limitless.

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2. Smarter chat bots

Chat Bots aren’t something new. We have been using them for quite some time for interaction. However, that chat bots that we use now is going to have a transformation that will change the entire e-commerce scenario that persists now. For instance, imagine that a user wishes to buy a bag online. He/She can type desired choice in the chat-bot and access the best deal.  When it comes to apps, chat bots will be integrated with voice search so that user will be persuaded to come back and buy stuffs.

3. Smart shopping carts to comparison

We all look for the best deals online before we go about with the shopping. Smart shopping carts show you the best deals on the internet. Now the best bargains come to you automatically. There are websites that compare the price and features online while we add the product that interests us before we make the purchase decision. These smart shopping carts help you better to find the best price, discounts, special offers, and coupons.

4. Introduction of drones

The future of logistics is something unbelievable; soon you will be receiving your order by a drone which notifies when it reaches your address. Many large companies are investing in drone companies, so that delivery in 100 km radius is made possible using drones. By driving this innovation into the space of E-commerce delivery will be faster and accurate. These quad-copters or sometimes octa-copters (in accordance with load) will deliver good that you have bought to your doorstep within hours of purchase.

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5. Social commerce

Social media is an integral part our lives and we spend a lot of time on social media. As such, it is a popular medium to reach out to potential customers and new visitors. Slowly e-commerce sites are including social media into business wherein you can interact directly with the customer support of a product that you are buying. This makes customer support a lot convenient for both customers as well as retailers. For E-commerce ventures, this makes a lot easier to reach out to their customers, build loyalty and to give special offers directly to new and existing customers by interacting with them over social media.

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6. Smart-phone evolution

Consumers use different devices to buy products from you. They switch from one device to another while browsing the web. Device-driven analytics will give the right information about a consumer and thus give better deals. It not only gives retailers an insight into their customer’s behaviour but also assesses and personalize the buying experience.

7. Personalized Ads

Soon the advertisements of retail stores will be user-generated videos. To be precise, customers can upload video clips with the products they have purchased and upload them to the retailer’s websites. This trend is expected to pick up speed and attract a lot of new customers. You can flaunt what you just bought in an advertisement. I know; It is exciting ain’t it?

10 Times Hollywood Made You Facepalm When It Comes To Computers

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Movies, it’s indeed a vain task to search logic in it. There are movie makers who have mastered the art of make-believe with their scientific thinking and movie making skills. On the contrary, some tend to underestimate the audience and end up weaving embarrassment on screen.

The aim is to keep the audience connected and making it simple for them to digest. But Hollywood sometimes pushes the “spoon feeding” idea over the edge till it falls flat on the face.

Let’s have a look at 10 such scenes which gave the audience, especially the techies, a mega facepalm.

1. NCIS Hackers

This is an American TV series based on crime investigation wing of the navy.

There is a scene in particular where a database being hacked. You can see two people banging the keys at the same time over the same keyboard. Apparently, they are trying to stop a malware attack happening over the network.  The tech talk is commendable but unfortunately, they forgot the fundamentals of using a keyboard.

Yet it would be pandering to the amateur audience to see a 65-year-old unplug the cable and stop the insurgency.

2. CSI— GUI Interface

The CSI the American crime investigation series shows two cops staring at a screen where they find a chat between two people. Since it is in real time the third member mumbles the impossible words only to justify the job she is doing.  “I’ll create a GUI interface using Visual Basic. See if I can track an IP address.”

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In short, her words might very well translate into “Il go write a code for a new program, design the software and assemble the hardware to track the location of the suspect”

Had the writer coded the lines with care, it could have saved her all the trouble.

3. Hackers

This 1995 crime flick featuring a bunch of high school kids involved in a corporate extortion conspiracy portrays a ridiculous visualization of how the hacker’s screen looks.

A scene wherein the underlying hacking process is depicted as a virtual 3-D representation of a city and stacks of data in the form of a building like structures is a very interesting visualization until it comes to the moment when you realize it is not what you thought.

The hacker is actually navigating through the 3-D structures in real-time over his screen using the keyboard. As long as you can wrap your brain around the kind of user interface they are using to cruise through the fascinating data structures, let us stick to command prompt.

4. Skyfall

A bond movie with another faulty montage on-screen scene.

They are trying to gain access to the hacker’s code which is repeatedly mutating itself.

The visualization of how the user interface accepts the input provided by the programmer and generates a subterranean channel of tubes in the city is far from the kind of images the GUI is capable of producing in reality.

A mesh of white and red wires generating a map of tube tunnels and bond instantly interpreting it as “subterranean London”

But again the Hollywood motto is mainly to keep the audience in the loop.

5. Masterminds

In a 1997 released action comedy, a kid plays a game which lets him hack into a corporate space which apparently looks like a dungeon.

It starts with establishing a connection followed by a series of command prompt drivel opening into a game “Scream II” and flashing below is a tagline “No Unauthorized access”

And how will the kid gain access? By finding a valid entry into the animated castle as a hacker who has two minutes to complete the task through a commotion of skeletons and warnings of federal prosecution in case of failure.

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The pressure dial up in the scene is what really gets you. But the glitch here is the access would not be declined once he is identified as an intruder.  In fact, a good two minutes are spared for him to breach further.  The game fairly tries to track the location but surprisingly updates every detail of it to the hacker which is a complete put off in comparison to some real comeback against hacking.

6. Firewall

A crime thriller released in 2006 in which Harrison Ford wants to pick account numbers from a computer monitor. This is a major hardware hacking blunder wherein he takes an iPod and plugs it into an age-old fax scanner head. The iPod obviously does not have a complimentary slot to connect to the scanner.

He might have just exaggerated on the ability of the iPod to thinking of it as something more than a storage device.

7. Jurassic Park

In this 1993 sci-fi adventure, a character tries to restart the access control of the facility to lock the control room’s doors.

The movie actually used an experimental application to view a building locking system in 3D. A section of audience perceived the idea as unrealistic and misinterpretation of computer visualization similar to the glitch in the movie Hackers.

But this, in reality, was a file manager program system developed by the SGI back in time which never made it to a fully functional software. The idea gained popularity through this very movie itself.

8. Unthinkable

What we are looking at is a multi-city nuclear insurgency. The person who planted the bombs is likely to spill the beans. The FBI eventually succeeds in tracing the locations and disposing the bombs.

But the technique they use is actually unthinkable. A member of the squad uses Microsoft excel sheet to reset the timer and prevent the bomb from going off.

They justified the title. What more could you ask for?

9. Numbers

An exaggerated crack of a hack!

The investigators come across two hackers conversing over an internet chat protocol.

The chat relay system is used by a bazillion people across the globe for communication over the internet.  But the way the cop tries to explain it, only makes it seem harder than it actually is.  The over the top explanation about boats and drug dealers just confuses the audience for no reason.

10. Independence day

The planet is under an alien attack.

The scientist terminates the invasion by uploading a virus in the extraterrestrial computer and blows up the mothership.  All this from a laptop created on earth by humans and within a timeframe you could cross a track of hurdle race with no hurdles. The pace is impressive until it strikes you that the technology he just disrupted is actually an alien operating system with a totally different structure than the binary codes of Microsoft.

So how exactly did he penetrate the system in the first place? Unless the alien ship had the same core technology to run their OS as ours,  the situation could easily drive any genius at his wit’s end.

The point is hacking, in reality, is not as exciting as the movies make it. An average person calmly staring at the screen with boring codes crawling over the screen would not take the audience at the edge of their seats.

But when you see a suave and young geek, shouting insane techie jargon and the screen flashing “decryption complete” at the last second of the ticking timer, it works wonders.

That was just another clichéd screenplay of a high voltage computer hacking scene followed by Hollywood filmmakers.

Which is your favorite Hollywood hacking facepalm moment? Do let us know in comments.

E-Commerce Migration: 5 Important Guidelines To Follow

Posted on by probytesnextjs

The decision to move your existing E-Commerce operation to a better, quicker and latest platform should not be considered lightly. E-Commerce Migration is an essential milestone of growth for any online business. You will have to make several decisions to avoid potential pitfalls.

As soon as you make a strategic decision of E-Commerce Migration, it has to be performed very smoothly. This activity is similar to relocating an offline store to another location. To make E-Commerce Migration a successful one, it is vital to follow five important guidelines.

Top 5 Guidelines for Successful E-Commerce Migration

When you follow a well-defined process with the five guidelines mentioned below, it will assure a seamless transition while performing E-Commerce Migration.

  1. Backup Product Data and Organize Catalog

E-Commerce Migration from one platform to the other is the right time to make a re-evaluation of how you manage your product data as well as the catalog. Let your product development manager and product teams prepare a chart after examining the product data to find out the potential areas that need improvement.

Collect the existing product data that comprises of product description, product photo, SKUs, product name, price rules, etc. to move it to the new platform. The principal objective should be to know how your product data looks at the PoS or Point of sale and track your inventory to remove the discontinued products or add fresh products.

It is important to make changes to your inventory at this stage, as the changes you make in old inventory will not get reflected in the new store once the migration process begins.

  1. Pay Attention to Visual Design and User Experience

Your online store should attract the attention of the users through an impressive visual design. Pay attention to how your color scheme, logos, and banners will look on the new e-commerce platform. Plus, optimize the user experience to make your shoppers buy more quickly.

You must also consider tweaking the checkout process, re-organize the products and have a brand new navigation setup. Remember, each template and platform is distinct in its way, and such features will not have the same effect after the migration process gets over.

If you are planning for a logo redesign or make changes to the settings of your online store, perform it now. Usually, the recommended time taken by E-Commerce Migration is from 6 to 10 business days. If you wish to make more changes beyond the backgrounds and colors, then consult a designer.

It is also the perfect time to check your new platform and get familiar with its settings to understand how the changes you make will be reflected in the new template.

  1. Enhance Utilities

While migrating to a new e-commerce platform, you have to pay attention to the utility aspects of your online store and enhance it to serve your customers in a better way. It is inevitable to alter your major business processes during this period.

Consider revamping your store settings to choose from several secure payment gateways, add store functionalities like modules, plug-ins and extensions and terms of shipping to assure your buyers a pleasant shopping experience.

Prepare a flowchart about each process in the existing system and later map it to the latest platform. It will help in analyzing and identifying the critical processes and the ones to eliminate.

If you are not happy with the service of your existing shipping provider, then try switching the providers at this time of E-Commerce Migration. Also, consult your CPA, tax attorney or finance controller to clear your doubts regarding the tax rates based on the locality and region of operations.

  1. Test Thoroughly

Like any other latest IT system, the latest e-commerce platform must be tested offline thoroughly, once the configuration and data migration gets completed successfully. It must be a rigorous testing process that builds time for fixing the bugs and identifying the issues that have to get resolved.

This step must begin thorough testing in every department in the organization as a part of the planning process of e-commerce migration. Departments like Sales, Marketing, IT, Finance and Accounting, which have a pivotal role to play in e-Commerce process must be vetted by the system to know how it coordinates with the operations.

The issues that get identified must be rectified, and the opinions from each department about the latest e-Commerce platform should be recorded and obtain the views of the users who have operated the system. Check how potential buyers respond to features.

It is essential to populate the data in both the latest and existing platforms and test the performance before migration.

  1. Go Live

To minimize confusion, and create better customer impact, it is essential to have an elaborate plan and careful consideration before going live. Make sure that transition timing and regular schedules of customer activity consideration are taken into account. The time of a day, seasonal business and days of a week must also be configured.

Your customers should be informed about what is taking place and what they will experience. It is important because your site may take many hours for propagating and the shoppers who visit your site during this migration period have chances of viewing both your earlier and new website. So, you will be getting orders from 2 sites while giving you an idea of what is working and which needs refining.

It is true that e-commerce migration can be a tedious process but, with the right planning, consideration, and preparation by various departments of your business, execution of the project can be much more comfortable. Make sure that you work with a well-versed migration expert team to ensure that the launch of your online store in a brand new platform is a painless and hassle-free process.

5 Must Follow Principles in Web App Development

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Driven by changing trends, the field of web application development has been seeing a massive change in the recent years. Earlier principles of web development do not make sense anymore, as the new ones have replaced them.

A quality web application should have unique features to make it useful for both the current and future users. It must adapt to the changes in the technology, cater to the long-term needs of the users, must offer easily maintainable setup and also grow along with the business.

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The brain behind the tech, web developers can build high-quality applications when they have an understanding of the principles of modern web app development. Such principles will enable the developers to create different apps that will be able to meet business needs of various users.

1st Principle: Offer Great User Experience

During these years, web development has witnessed immense changes regarding methodologies and tools for latest devices. However, one principle remains unaffected and has attained greater significance, which is the user.

Often, the focus on the user gets shifted to few other aspects of the web development, such as applying the latest technology, meeting a strenuous deadline or rushing a project. No matter what issues might arise, it is crucial for the developer to stay focused on the primary goal, which is, offering excellent user experience. Each developer should focus on creating better usability experience for their users. It includes easier navigations, crisp design, attractive buttons, design layouts, etc.

The web application created must be readily accessible on all devices while offering enhanced user interface.

2nd Principle: Security Is Mandatory

The web developers should be aware that the hackers love to attack the online assets of business only through their web applications. Most often, the web apps experience severe threats as they do not have proper access control procedures, confidentiality features, and strict authentication processes.

Several web-based applications are also vulnerable to SQL Injection and Cross Site Sculpting too. These security threats can be prevented easily by incorporating top-notch security features, as soon as the developer begins building the web applications. It is vital to check if the authentication mechanisms are in action and if the transit of data is performed securely.

3rd Principle: Make Use Of Modern Tools

Earlier web developers used a single language for web application development. This scenario has changed now, as they are required to know several programming languages, latest architecture, responsive design, online vulnerabilities, principles of UX, JavaScript, API integration and so on.

The web app developers must get equipped with evolving skill set to handle complex web app developments.  Learning about modern tools are much needed, as they will have to face several challenges such as delivering apps quickly while not compromising on the security or functional aspects as well as working under strict deadlines.

They can make use of the tools, libraries, and frameworks that would enable them to deliver the applications much quicker. Plus, tools like cloud computing, smart IDEs, etc. are quintessential for any developer, as these tools can fill up the gaps and help them achieve the tasks that cannot be handled on their own.

4th Principle: Embrace the Multi-Screen World

These days, people prefer to access the web applications through an array of gadgets having different screen sizes. So, the web developers must assume that their app would be viewed on many handheld devices with varying screen sizes. So, they must have a flexible mindset while building web apps to make it highly compatible with all types of devices.

5th Principle: Pay Attention to Architecture and Address Concerns

The web developer should never ignore the architecture of the app, as it plays a vital role in impacting its scalability, security, flexibility, maintenance, and others. The app architecture should not be visible to their users while making the overall app impact look huge.

Paying attention to database planning and initial architecture has a vital role in making the web app a successful one. They can also consider the microservice architectural style to develop a single app for a small services suite, where each would its process running and establish smooth communications with HTTP resource API or similar lightweight mechanisms.

The approach is a perfect choice for the web apps, as it breaks the backend into several resources and services while making the apps very reliable, flexible, organized and modular.

Apart from the top 5 principles of modern web application development, the web developers should also focus on creating web apps driven by speed. In the recent years, we have seen several applications demanding an increase in speed, which is due to 2 key factors.

Firstly, the users of web application users have less level of patience as their attention span is short. The developers must build web apps with the ability to deal with a significant amount of data through several data sources. When the apps are not optimized correctly, the high volume data can cause it to slow down and drive away the users.

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Secondly, the businesses are required to have impressive page speed. Google followed this trend by announcing that they considered their page loading speed as a ranking aspect. It shows that slow pages will get penalized in the search results. The AMP Project having the Google support is said to be the open standard for web pages get loaded on mobile devices quickly. Performance optimization is swiftly becoming a significant element for the developmental process of web applications.

15 Movies Programmers Should Not Miss At Any Cost

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Programming is an art and it needs good dedication and time to explore the world of innovations. But once you get through, it seems like a world of imagination and instincts that can work wonders. There are many awesome movies that portray the possibilities of programming and technology. Brilliant directors connect certain ideas to give us a world of entertainment, education as well as inspiration. Just like books, some amazing movies can make a magical impact to some people. We have heard stories of people whose life has transformed amazingly with the inspiration they got from movies.

When choosing movies, everybody will have their special taste. When it comes to movies for programmers, they would mostly love to see screen plays that use the most updated technology or the real life stories of their programming heroes. Here is a short list of some movies which is highly recommended for an aspiring programmer.

1. The Matrix

This is an awesome movie which every programmer would love to watch despite time. The Matrix is a science fiction action film that hit the screens in the year 1999. This was one of the first movies in which the idea of “hackers” was highlighted in the mainstream. This movie inspired many youngsters of the time to learn more about computers and programming. The programming enthusiasts can see that the concepts of recursion and loop are executed brilliantly in this movie. It was directed and penned by The Wachowski Brothers.

2. The Social Network

This is a 2010 American movie that has occupied one of the top spots in the all time favourite movies of programmers. The Social Network fictionally depicts the origin of Facebook and the muddle of lawsuits that were to be faced. With eight nominations, the movie was a hit at the Oscars. The movie admirers would love to see the life journey of the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. The introduction of this social media application was a sensation of the period and the movie also got enough appreciation for its brilliant screen play, editing and direction.

3. WarGames

This is an American Cold War science fiction movie that was released back in the year 1983 under the direction of John Badham. In one word, movie lovers will describe WarGames as ‘classic’ which screened the story of an 80’s kid hacker. The movie shows how the kid accidentally accessed WOPR (War Operation Plan Response) thinking it was a game and the after effects. Some experts also saw this movie as a message to parents and teachers to have an eye on the kids to avoid misuse of the possibilities of programming.

4. Takedown

This 2000 movie portrays the story of a computer hacker, Kevin Mitnick which took the plot from the book ‘Takedown’ written by John Markoff and Tsutomu Shimomura. As he is the topmost hacker globally, programmers would love to watch Takedown to see how he uses or misuses the programming possibilities to challenge the world. Skeet Ulrich and Russell Wong played key roles in the movie and it was directed by Joe Chappelle.

5. Source Code

It is an amazing science fiction thriller that hit the screens in the year 2011. Source Code is a kind of movie that keeps you exciting throughout the run which is intellectually stimulating and connects you emotionally, as well. The movie takes you to an interesting plot of tracking Chicago commuter train bomber with a top secret operation. You can see an amazing mysterious trail when the hero enters another person’s body in the journey. The movie was directed by Duncan Jones and penned by Ben Ripley. The key role was handled brilliantly by Jake Gyllenhaal.

6. Pirates of Silicon Valley

This American drama film that hit the screens in the year 1999 came under the direction of Martyn Burke. A true programming enthusiast would definitely spend some time to watch Pirates of Silicon Valley as it shows the journey of developing the personal computer while exploring the competition between Jobs and Gates. The incidents that happened throughout the year span of 1971–1997 are depicted in the picture when finally Apple and Microsoft announced an alliance.

Also Read: 25 Best Programming Movies Every Programming Student Must Watch!

7. Antitrust

This is a 2001 thriller film from the pen of Howard Franklin that tells the story of young idealistic programmers. The plot of Antitrust is a large corporation which is a dream land for any programmer which offers creative opportunities in an informal working environment. The movie showcases how a young programmer found out some hidden truth behind the organization and brought some anti-trust problems to limelight.

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8. The Imitation Game

This is an amazing American historical drama film that was released in 2014. Programmers would find watching The Imitation Game really interesting as it portrays the journey of inventing world’s first computer. You can see the struggles of Alan Turing and team in the process which eventually decodes the prominent German Enigma code. Historians praise this invention for making the war shorter and saving many lives. It was written by Graham Moore and directed by Morten Tyldum.

9. The Fifth Estate

This biographical thriller film hit the screens in the year 2013 under the direction of Bill Condon. The Fifth Estate portrays the incidents and controversies that paved the way for WikiLeaks. Programmers would be excited to know about how the internet activists set a platform to misuse the programming possibilities to anonymously leak important data from corporate crimes and government. The movie inspired the plot from some famous books on wikileaks.

10. Jobs

This is an American biographical drama film which was released in the year 2013 based on the life of Steve Jobs, the man who took Apple company to next level. The movie Jobs portrays important incidents in his life right from his college to the finding of the Apple iPod. He is such an inspiration for the young programmers and this movie can really do a lot in impressing the folks. It was penned by Matt Whiteley and came under the direction of Joshua Michael Stern.

11. Primer

This 2004 American movie portrays the unintentional discovery of time travel. The experts evaluate that the movie Primer is made exclusively for engineers and not for an average audience. That is why it holds a special position in the list of movies for programmers. It runs an experimental plot structure which depicts the story of a strong comeback of two hardware engineers into the pinnacle. The inspiration from the movie is good enough for any apathetic engineer to give it a try with the programming possibilities.

12. Hackers

This is a 1995 American crime film based on the plot of a set of high school hackers and their role in the conspiracy of corporate extortion. The Hackers hit the screens when the idea of internet was not that popular and what the movie showed seemed a mystery to many. This movie was directed by Iain Softley and penned by Rafael Moreu.

13. Office Space

This is a 1999 American comedy film that deserves a spot in the list of most loved movies by programmers. In Office Space, the work life of a typical software company in the late 1990s is portrayed in a fun space. The movie was inspired by Judge’s Milton cartoon series. Even when the movie was not a big success in the box office, it won many hearts, especially that of programmers whose life was portrayed beautifully.

14. Tron

This is a really interesting American science fiction action-adventure film that was released long back in the year 1982. The plot of Tron is really amazing to watch, especially for programmers as it portrays the story of a computer programmer who got zapped into the computer world. Considering the time the movie was released, the effects that was used throughout the film deserves applause. The interesting plot shows how he interacts with programs in order to escape from that world.

15. Ex Machina

This is a science fiction psychological thriller that hit the screens in 2015. The Ex Machina runs around an interesting plot of artificial intelligence and the fictional discovery of “strong AI”. This discovery was something which people would love to have, as it lets you know whether the person in front actually likes you or is faking it. A breathtaking cinematography is what made this movie an awesome one. The movie showcases the brilliance of software developers in creating beauty and meaning to the world around us while giving a caution of handling it properly.

From the movies listed above which one has influenced you the most as a programmer? Comment below and let us know.

Tips to Make a Killer Product Page for Your Online Store

Posted on by probytesnextjs

It takes a lot more to sell products than opening a store. You have to be creative with your approach and make people feel that they need your product. Whenever you create a need for your product, users will start buying it without thinking a lot. You know your product is good, but how do you make your website visitors believe that too? Does your website statistics say that a lot of people are visiting your product page but decidedly less buy the product? If that’s what is happening with you, all your efforts are going down the drain.

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If you want to boost your sales, you need to revamp your product page. Wondering how to do it? Here are nine tips that will help you make a killer product page for your online store:

Clean product URLs

An exact product URL is easier to read and remember as well. If your product page URL is www.shop.com/ccc%%%%crea??mcc/, no one will be able to recognize it. Most people will not even bother to share it. But if your product page URL is www.shop.com/cream/ a visitor will find it easy to remember.

You have complete control over designing your product URL the way you want, so why not do it neatly? Also, remember to keep your product page URL SEO-friendly. When your URL appears at the top of the search and is easy to read, the prospective buyer will be compelled to open it.

SEO-rich product titles and descriptions

Make sure your product titles and descriptions are SEO-rich but also high in quality. Focus on keeping the names of your product simple and easy to read. Write descriptions that are short and crisp. Use actionable sentences to create a need for the viewer, so that he is forced to buy it. You need to do a keyword research well in advance. Make sure you don’t overdo the keyword use.

Rather than putting a product title like Cream, put a title like Cream – for Winter Care. While searching, people don’t search just for the products. Some of them use other terms associated with the product as a tag.

Ensure product pages are mobile-friendly

Your product pages should be mobile-friendly. If your product page isn’t mobile-friendly and appears only in the desktop version, which is difficult to view on mobile, the user will exit from your website. According to reports, nearly 60 percent of people use mobile devices to search on Google

Over the past couple years many people have started shopping through mobile devices as it is very convenient. Accept the truth and get your website’s mobile-friendly interface ready soon.

List the pricing correctly

If you have a website that ships worldwide, you need to mention the price of your product in all currencies. Have a currency conversion plug-in attached to your website that does the work for you. No one has time to open another window and Google the conversion from one currency to another.

Mention the price just below the title and then give the specifications and product descriptions. Always place the price at your eye level, so that no one has to hunt for it all over the place.

Show the product from different angles and in a setup

It is evident that your prospective buyer wants to get a good look at the product. Click photos from different angles to show how the product looks. You can google the types of aspects that are used and ask your photographer to do that. Usually, there should be at least three angles.

Also, one photograph should be how the product looks in a live setup. You will need to get very creative here and shoot setup shots giving a real-life experience. For example, if you sell the sofa, create a small setup with the couch, rug underneath, and a coffee table with some accents on it.

High-quality images

All images you use must be of high quality. It reflects that your company and products are genuine. The person won’t spend time thinking if the product is authentic or not. Always use your images and not images that are similar to your product.

For clicking high-quality images, you don’t need a professional photographer. Purchase a good quality camera and click photos. There are so many videos available online that teach you how to click the perfect product photographs.

Hire writers to write positive and descriptive reviews for the products

Anyone who visits your website will read the reviews first before buying the product. If there are no reviews, the customer won’t buy it. If you are starting a new business and not many people have bought your products, you can hire writers to write positive reviews for the products. They don’t have to sound overly confident but should be descriptive.

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For example, if you have a clothing store, ask the writer to talk about the softness, thickness, and texture of the fabric.

Pay attention to details like size chart

If you have clothing or footwear store, having a size chart is compulsory. This size chart should include the measurements for different sizes. If you have a furniture store or any other store, give dimensions of the product, so that people can measure it in their setting.

Give exact measurements because that adds value to your product page. Your product page becomes more legible, and one-time customers will turn into a loyal customer when they get the product in the exact size as mentioned on the product page.

Bold headlines

Your product title is your first headline. Write the title in capital letters and make it bright. It should be in the most prominent font size you can use so that the prospective customers see it first as soon as they open the product page. Other headlines on your product page will be specifications, measurements, descriptions, and reviews. Make all these headlines bold and in capital letters as well.

It also gives a structured look to the product page and becomes very easy and readable for the viewer.

Take care of these tiny things to make a killer product page for your online store. Make sure that is no grammatical error as it is a significant letdown. Keep experimenting, and you’ll find your most active strategy to boost sales very soon.

11 Ways You Can Promote Your Store Online

Posted on by probytesnextjs

Do you want your online store to make higher sales? Well, you need to do a lot more than sending out promotional emails or posting a photo on Facebook or Instagram. It is time you get out of your comfort zone and be open to new ideas to promote your store online. In today’s world, everything is online, and making your presence felt is very essential.

With just one click, you reach all over the world. To promote your store online smartly and reach out to your target population within a small period, we have compiled a list of 11 effective ways to improve your shop online. Here we go.

  1. Try AdWords

By using AdWords, you reach your target audience almost immediately. Every business should have an AdWords account in today’s online world. Your advertisement gets displayed on search engines and third party websites.

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Banner ads get displayed on websites and blogs belonging to your niche. You can also try out text ads on Google or other search engines. Your website appears the first when something related to your given keywords is searched.

  1. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is all about giving someone a percentage of profit if they make a sale for you. You can either promote this as your USP or make sellers sign up on your website or ask influencers to do that. Some stores give massive discounts or free clothes to wear, but money works as the best motivation to boost sales. Also, these people will promote your product all the time, so you get two things done simultaneously.

  1. Email Marketing

Keep your email game updated with attractive messages, discounts, promotions, etc. Email your customers regularly, give your audience secret coupons and extra benefits to try out your products. You can send out different emails pretending to different audience, occasions, and seasons. Just make sure you don’t bombard them with too many emails.

Also, include your store’s website/ offers in your email signature along with social media handles. It will encourage viewers to visit your online store and glance at it.

  1. Social media and promotions

Social media play a vital role in promoting your online store. It’s one of the easiest ways to reach millions of active users. A recent report suggests that nearly three billion people around the globe now use social media for the various purposes. Facebook tops the list of social media for monthly active users.

With eye-catchy messaging and attractive promotional campaigns, you can easily connect with new as well existing users. Keep your social media always active; engage your audience in daily activities. Apart from promotions, you can also use social media to answer user queries, give suggestions, hear and solve customer issues in real-time.

  1. Get help from social influencers

Find social influencers like photographer, bloggers, and vloggers on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube that belong to your niche. Send these influencers free samples of your product and ask them to review it after using it. You can also send a discount coupon for their followers to apply while shopping at your online store. Many followers trust these influencers and often purchase products that they use.

  1. Contact with guest bloggers

Sponsor bloggers to write blogs about your products or services. Give them a free sample to try or else start a monthly subscription process, where the blogger writes three or four blogs on your products. Target review bloggers, because people look up to them to provide the best review so that they don’t have to spend much time researching about a particular product.

  1. Sponsor an event

Keep track of events that happen locally. Pick a couple of them every quarterly and sponsor the event. You don’t need to sponsor the entire event but a part of it, for example – food or lights, or paying for the venue. Ask the event organizers to let you put up a small stall, where people can check out your products and buy them.

8 Gift merchandise and coupons along with every purchase

Every time someone purchases your products, you can give discount coupons and merchandise along with it. The merchandise can be something like a sticker, fridge magnets, a t-shirt, key chain with your company’s name and logo. It increases customer loyalty, and the discount coupons increase sales too.

Send some gift on customer’s first order like keychains or something small. Also, change your gifts every season to get people excited about it. Promote these rewards on all your social media accounts and the homepage of your online store as well.

  1. Referral program

When any user come to your store and purchases some products, give them a referral coupon code for their followers. This program helps in spreading your brand name and attracting lots of new users

It will motivate every user to refer someone new and thereby to grab the referral reward.

  1. Start blogging

Take blogging seriously. Apart from spreading the brand awareness, Blogs help in widely in SEO. They improve the number of backlinks and increase traffic to your online store. The more the backlinks, the more chances of coming up in organic search results in different search engines

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Post blogs at least thrice in a week to let people know about your latest products. You can hire freelance writers and give them topics to write that suit your niche. If you have a clothing store, ask the writers to write on topics like bridal trends of 2017, winter trends for 2017, and some hack or how to articles.You can also make styling/ informational videos on YouTube and reach out to a broader audience.

  1. Fire up your social media with reviews and attractive photos

Become an influencer yourself. Any person who comes across your social media account should get hooked on your reviews and photos. Invest in hiring a photographer and a stylist to make your photos look attractive. When you upload good quality photos, your customers will start following you and become loyal shoppers.

The Most Secure Web Programming Language – is there any?

Posted on by probytesnextjs

At the outset, it must be said that if you are searching for the most secure and yet versatile web programming language, then, weare afraid, there is none. All the languages have some pros and cons that cannot guarantee you a complete security.

Recently, a research by WhiteHat security conducted on vulnerabilities of various web programming languages came up with an intriguing finding. It actually shows that all the web programing languages are vulnerable to different kinds of security breach. It is only the facet of vulnerability that varies among different languages.

So your quest should now narrow down to specific vulnerabilities for each language rather than searching for the best as it won’t lead you anywhere. The million dollar question here is how?

Let’s learn how to rank programming languages in terms of their vulnerability

PHP is vulnerable to a comprehensive list of bugs

PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor, is a server side programming language, among the several other web scripting languages, found in almost all the applications. Having its parent in the C and C++ languages, PHP language is very easy and interesting to many naïve users. It can run on both UNIX and windows. It is known as a very cheap reliable and fast.

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The once written PHP code has at least one instance of cross-site scripting vulnerability. SQL injection is found in 56% of apps. In fact, SQL: Injection is one of the most easy-to-exploit vulnerability of a web application.

The problem of directory traversal is found in 67% of apps written in PHP and the problem of code infection is found in 61% of apps written in PHP. Credentials management problem can be very damaging for the reputation of a website, and yet it is found in almost 58% of apps written in PHP. Cryptographic issues are found in 73% of apps developed in PHP and 58% of sites accounted for information leakage.

Classic ASP is not far behind

Classic ASP (Active Server Pages) is a powerful tool used to develop websites since it can be easily modified and requires simple text editor. The language encompasses important functionalities which lacks in PHP.

Though the technology offers simple development, it consists of a few downsides due to its each file containing its own inline code. Classic ASP is also found to be vulnerable to a comprehensive list of bugs such as SQL injection, cross site scripting, information leakage, directory removal, insufficient input validation etc.

ColdFusion is giving jitters to developers

Though the name isn’t the most popular, ColdFusion offers an innovative platform that inculcates powerful tools to develop your web architecture. But many web developers avoid using it due to its complicated architecture which cannot be understood by the web owners.

Cross site scripting, information leakage, SQL injection, directory traversal etc. are some of the biggest issues with ColdFusion. However, Adobe Systems has recently addressed the problem of information leakage through updates for ColdFusion 10 and ColdFusion 11.

.NET is insufficient

Before the invent of programming platforms, the developers has to handle a lot of tasks like memory allocation, garbage collection etc. .Net took away this pain by offering the developers a platform for memory management.

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Information leakage, code quality and cryptographic issues, directory traversal, cross site scripting, insufficient input validation are some of the critical issues with .NET. Many a times the language platform turns out a bit expensive.

Java is not all hunky dory

One of the widely used 21st century language, Java is a general purpose, object oriented programming language. People many a times are always confused about the best language to work on. If you would understand the popularity of this language and the features it offers, you would certainly prefer this one. The Java code is extremely flexible and can be reused as required. Hence it is one of the favorites of developers. And above all, it’s an open source and free software.

Code quality, code injection, cryptographic issues, and information leakage, cross site scripting, directory traversal are some of the biggest issues with Java web programing language. Java’s memory management is seen as an expensive affair. Also, lack of templates in java sometimes makes it cumbersome to work with.

Conclusion

What you need to note here is that, every language has its own pros and cons. selecting the right technology depends on the nature and size of the project. One thing is for sure and that is – vulnerabilities like SQL injection and cross site scripting are more prevalent in scripting based applications such as PHP, ColdFusion and ASP. However, most of these languages have had security APIs that have covered at least some of the lapses, if not all of them.

Pros and Cons of Prestashop E-commerce Development

Posted on by probytesnextjs

Prestashop was introduced in 2007, it has gained popularity along with fully fledged Prestashop Ecommerce development solutions over the past decade. At this moment of time Prestashop has managed to provide an e-commerce platform for 1.25 lakh stores word-wide. What make Prestashop stand apart from competitors are reliable online shopping solutions and amazing user experience.

Of course, not all e-commerce solutions are perfect and will have some demerits or flaws along with impressive features and so is the case of Prestashop. Here let us have a look at the most important pros and cons of Prestashop E commerce development.

1. Easy to install

The installation of the software is a very simple process. You just need to download the file on your gadget from their official website. Setting up a fully functional online store is just a few steps away. Deploying PrestaShop is not a big deal for even users that have only a slow internet connection as it is light with less than 6MB in size. Since the file itself is so small there won’t even be a question about slowing down of website and as a result, users can benefit from faster search options.

2. Open source platform

Prestashop is an open source shopping cart website that can be owned free of cost. Unlike its counterparts, there is no need for a license fee to establish an e-store. This is a great option for merchants looking to start up a new online venture with minimal investments. A pretty decent store can be set up without giving a thought about transaction or monthly fees with this web based e-commerce solution.

3. Easy to use and maintain

There is no technical brilliance needed to operate an e-store using this shopping solution. It is easy to understand, with a simple design and has a convenient back end interface. A user with minimal technical know-how can handle the website with ease, so maintaining the website is most of the time hassle free. The overall convenience to operate throughout the store is always an upfront giving way for only negligible technical jargon.

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4. User friendly interface

The convenience of handling the store with a user friendly interface is the key advantage of Prestashop shopping solution. This is really helpful in effortless management and maintenance of the store. The quicker processing and easy navigation throughout the website has added to its amazing user experience. The availability of 25000+ plugins plays the key part in building a fully functional store with ease.

5. Customization friendly

Depending on the varying business needs, the shopping cart website using Prestashop can be easily customized. You can add or delete features of the store to make it suitable for your business type. Personalizing particular areas of your store can be done with complete flexibility during Prestashop website development Service.

6. Demographic assistance

The support for multiple languages and currencies has made its localisation process simple. With enough demographic assistance, the stores using Prestashop are running successfully across USA, UK, India, Canada, China, Germany, and Japan. Even when the complete support is available for only English and French, the website can be easily translated to around 40 to 45 languages.

7. Minimal system requirements

Running the store on your device doesn’t require much system requirements. All you need is a stable shared hosting plan. The store runs efficiently with just a stable operation system such as Linux, UNIX or Windows and PHP 5.2, MySQL 5. And operating from PrestaShop Cloud is a lot convenient in comparison to self hosting.

8. Secure payment

Reliable and user friendly payment gateways are another important attractive feature of using Prestashop shopping cart solution. There is nothing to worry about fraud or time delay when using their payment options such as PayPal and Google Checkout. Moreover, secure transactions are assured through SSL protocol system. Above all, Prestashop’s one-page checkout process considerably speeds up the product purchase.

9. Economic choice

With the need of only minimal investment and a fewer resources, you can set up an online store in a minimal time frame. The base version itself offers all the features of a fully functional store. The store can run on a shared hosting web service making it a great option for those merchants looking to start a new venture with budget constraints.

In addition to all these significant options, Prestashop is also designed to offer some out of the box features. This includes free promotional tools including coupons and vouchers, automation of Email follow-up and user convenient features such as ‘recently viewed products’, returns management and order tracking. Also you can have more in the store with its latest upgrade to Prestashop 1.7 that features enhanced product configuration and improved back office navigation.

Not all shopping solutions are built to perfection and have disadvantages or limitations when compared to counterparts. Here let us have a look at the pros of Prestashop website development that should be taken into consideration before going for it.

10. Limited scalability

This shopping website is a great solution for small to medium sized stores but not so great when your business is looking to expand. This free software for online store can be an asset to improve the online exposure of your business with multi-vendor support but with limited benefits for large or complex projects. Its lack of multi-store feature is a major drawback when setting up a full-scale project.

 11. Unprofessional design

Prestashop comes with a pretty decent design to run a start up or low budget store but not good enough for large scale stores. The design lacks a professional touch even when it serves the basic functions. Some users also complain about a poorly designed statistics system and about upgrading issues. And it has only limited options for cross sell products.

12. Paid functionality

Many of the features that come built in with its counterparts are not available with this open source platform. This free version is actually a basic solution with only standard features to run a medium sized store but not with advanced functionalities. You will have to buy additional modules to meet your advanced needs but need to spend a pretty sum.

13. No official support team

Unlike other shopping solutions that has official support teams to deal with any mishaps; no official team is there to help you out with Prestashop. However, many of the Prestashop users are not considering this as a drawback as there is an active user community with over 700,000 members who are always out with a hand of assistance. The support pages on Facebook and Twitter, as well as the rich documentation with FAQs and user guide, are good enough to keep the system updated.

When you are planning to set up an online store for your business, you have to take a deeper dig into its pros and cons. If you are on a low budget and looking to have a standard online store with some decent features to give an online exposure for your business, Prestashop E commerce development has proved a good choice. On the other hand, if you prefer a fully-fledged store with advanced features for a large scale project, you can have a look at other alternatives.  You can also have a trial version before signing up to the original version for most of the platforms. After all, a wise decision is not to go after a platform with a higher rating but to choose the one that suits your exact business purpose.