#2021 Coding Book Sale

[mostlysignssomeportents]

An open copyright casebook, featuring AI, Warhol and more

I'm coming to DEFCON! On Aug 9, I'm emceeing the EFF POKER TOURNAMENT (noon at the Horseshoe Poker Room), and appearing on the BRICKED AND ABANDONED panel (5PM, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01). On Aug 10, I'm giving a keynote called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE! How hackers can seize the means of computation and build a new, good internet that is hardened against our asshole bosses' insatiable horniness for enshittification" (noon, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01).

Few debates invite more uninformed commentary than "IP" – a loosely defined grab bag that regulates an ever-expaning sphere of our daily activities, despite the fact that almost no one, including senior executives in the entertainment industry, understands how it works.

Take reading a book. If the book arrives between two covers in the form of ink sprayed on compressed vegetable pulp, you don't need to understand the first thing about copyright to read it. But if that book arrives as a stream of bits in an app, those bits are just the thinnest scrim of scum atop a terminally polluted ocean of legalese.

At the bottom layer: the license "agreement" for your device itself – thousands of words of nonsense that bind you not to replace its software with another vendor's code, to use the company's own service depots, etc etc. This garbage novella of legalese implicates trademark law, copyright, patent, and "paracopyrights" like the anticircumvention rule defined by Section 1201 of the DMCA:

https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-lawsuit-takes-dmca-section-1201-research-and-technology-restrictions-violate

Then there's the store that sold you the ebook: it has its own soporific, cod-legalese nonsense that you must parse; this can be longer than the book itself, and it has been exquisitely designed by the world's best-paid, best-trained lawyer to liquefy the brains of anyone who attempts to read it. Nothing will save you once your brains start leaking out of the corners of your eyes, your nostrils and your ears – not even converting the text to a brilliant graphic novel:

https://memex.craphound.com/2017/03/03/terms-and-conditions-the-bloviating-cruft-of-the-itunes-eula-combined-with-extraordinary-comic-book-mashups/

Even having Bob Dylan sing these terms will not help you grasp them:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/25/musical-chairs/#subterranean-termsick-blues

The copyright nonsense that accompanies an ebook transcends mere Newtonian physics – it exists in a state of quantum superposition. For you, the buyer, the copyright nonsense appears as a license, which allows the seller to add terms and conditions that would be invalidated if the transaction were a conventional sale. But for the author who wrote that book, the copyright nonsense insists that what has taken place is a sale (which pays a 25% royalty) and not a license (a 50% revenue-share). Truly, only a being capable of surviving after being smeared across the multiverse can hope to embody these two states of being simultaneously:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/21/early-adopters/#heads-i-win

But the challenge isn't over yet. Once you have grasped the permissions and restrictions placed upon you by your device and the app that sold you the ebook, you still must brave the publisher's license terms for the ebook – the final boss that you must overcome with your last hit point and after you've burned all your magical items.

This is by no means unique to reading a book. This bites us on the job, too, at every level. The McDonald's employee who uses a third-party tool to diagnose the problems with the McFlurry machine is using a gadget whose mere existence constitutes a jailable felony:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/20/euthanize-rentier-enablers/#cold-war

Meanwhile, every single biotech researcher is secretly violating the patents that cover the entire suite of basic biotech procedures and techniques. Biotechnicians have a folk-belief in "patent fair use," a thing that doesn't exist, because they can't imagine that patent law would be so obnoxious as to make basic science into a legal minefield.

IP is a perfect storm: it touches everything we do, and no one understands it.

Or rather, almost no one understands it. A small coterie of lawyers have a perfectly fine grasp of IP law, but most of those lawyers are (very well!) paid to figure out how to use IP law to screw you over. But not every skilled IP lawyer is the enemy: a handful of brave freedom fighters, mostly working for nonprofits and universities, constitute a resistance against the creep of IP into every corner of our lives.

Two of my favorite IP freedom fighters are Jennifer Jenkins and James Boyle, who run the Duke Center for the Public Domain. They are a dynamic duo, world leading demystifiers of copyright and other esoterica. They are the creators of a pair of stunningly good, belly-achingly funny, and extremely informative graphic novels on the subject, starting with the 2008 Bound By Law, about fair use and film-making:

https://www.dukeupress.edu/Bound-by-Law/

And then the followup, THEFT! A History of Music:

https://web.law.duke.edu/musiccomic/

Both of which are open access – that is to say, free to download and share (you can also get handsome bound print editions made of real ink sprayed on real vegetable pulp!).

Beyond these books, Jenkins and Boyle publish the annual public domain roundups, cataloging the materials entering the public domain each January 1 (during the long interregnum when nothing entered the public domain, thanks to the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act, they published annual roundups of all the material that should be entering the public domain):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/20/em-oh-you-ess-ee/#sexytimes

This year saw Mickey Mouse entering the public domain, and Jenkins used that happy occasion as a springboard for a masterclass in copyright and trademark:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/15/mouse-liberation-front/#free-mickey

But for all that Jenkins and Boyle are law explainers, they are also law professors and as such, they are deeply engaged with minting of new lawyers. This is a hard job: it takes a lot of work to become a lawyer.

It also takes a lot of money to become a lawyer. Not only do law-schools charge nosebleed tuition, but the standard texts set by law-schools are eye-wateringly expensive. Boyle and Jenkins have no say over tuitions, but they have made a serious dent in the cost of those textbooks. A decade ago, the pair launched the first open IP law casebook: a free, superior alternative to the $160 standard text used to train every IP lawyer:

https://web.archive.org/web/20140923104648/https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/openip/

But IP law is a moving target: it is devouring the world. Accordingly, the pair have produced new editions every couple of years, guaranteeing that their free IP law casebook isn't just the best text on the subject, it's also the most up-to-date. This week, they published the sixth edition:

https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/openip/

The sixth edition of Intellectual Property: Law & the Information Society – Cases & Materials; An Open Casebook adds sections on the current legal controversies about AI, and analyzes blockbuster (and batshit) recent Supreme Court rulings like Vidal v Elster, Warhol v Goldsmith, and Jack Daniels v VIP Products. I'm also delighted that they chose to incorporate some of my essays on enshittification (did you know that my Pluralistic.net newsletter is licensed CC Attribution, meaning that you can reprint and even sell it without asking me?).

(On the subject of Creative Commons: Boyle helped found Creative Commons!)

Ten years ago, the Boyle/Jenkins open casebook kicked off a revolution in legal education, inspiring many legals scholars to create their own open legal resources. Today, many of the best legal texts are free (as in speech) and free (as in beer). Whether you want to learn about trademark, copyright, patents, information law or more, there's an open casebook for you:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/14/angels-and-demons/#owning-culture

The open access textbook movement is a stark contrast with the world of traditional textbooks, where a cartel of academic publishers are subjecting students to the scammiest gambits imaginable, like "inclusive access," which has raised the price of textbooks by 1,000%:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/07/markets-in-everything/#textbook-abuses

Meanwhile, Jenkins and Boyle keep working on this essential reference. The next time you're tempted to make a definitive statement about what IP permits – or prohibits – do yourself (and the world) a favor, and look it up. It won't cost you a cent, and I promise you you'll learn something.

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/30/open-and-shut-casebook/#stop-confusing-the-issue-with-relevant-facts

Image: Cryteria (modified) Jenkins and Boyle https://web.law.duke.edu/musiccomic/

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

[jokerislandgirl32]

Chris for the ornaments(and not really WK related but Nori as an ornament lol)

Oh yes! Thank you so much for requesting Chris! I’ve been wanting to do one of the bros! I’ve had their ornaments picked out from the start! And Nori absolutely deserves one! She is a Wild Kratts OC in my book, and she’s also Zach and Violet’s adopted niece/daughter! They love her so much! Chris and Nori have two ornaments each! You can find their ornaments below the cut! In response to this post 😊.

For Chris I had to go with a green and animal theme for both his ornaments. Chris’s first ornament is this chubby little bird! It is the Cozy Critters Hallmark Keepsake Ornament from 2021! This little bird has a cute little outfit that has a green color scheme (and red so it kinda eludes to Toodles too…anyway), and the bird’s feathers are primarily brown. Chris is the brown eyed and brunette brother, and he LOVES green. So, this ornament is not only representative of his appearance, but it also showcases one of his favorite things: green, for our GREEN and blue world!

The second ornament for Chris is this brown fabric cat with a green ribbon around its neck and a moon, star, and Christmas tree pattern all over. This is an ornament that I believe was given to my family by my father’s youngest sister (aka the aunt who makes my Wild Kratts birthday cakes). The green and brown color combo, as with his previous ornament, give me soooo many Chris vibes. But this ornament also plays into the fact that he is the climbing brother (the trees are for climbing), and he’s the cat brother! In the Cats and Dogs special it is revealed at the beginning that he prefers cats, so this ornament is just perfect for the cat lover in him!

Nori Foreman, our beautiful mermaid girl, has two beautiful blue themed ornaments in store for her!

The first ornament I selected for her is this large sea foam colored glass ornament with a swirling, glittery, white pattern throughout. The sea foam color makes me think of her eye color, first and foremost. She had beautiful light sea foam eyes just like the ocean! And speaking of the ocean…this color makes me think of her connection to the ocean! Her amazing and spectacular merpowers! The swirling glitter pattern gives the feeling of the ocean waves, which pays homage to our (mine and Caity) joint story Under the Violet Waves!

Her next ornament is this HUGE clip on butterfly ornament that my mother got on sale after Christmas a few years ago. Its clip is about off and needs repair, but this butterfly is hanging in there lol. Which…kinda makes me think of Nori, she’s been through a lot to discover how to hone and control her merpowers, but she powers in and tries her best regardless of any setbacks. Plus the color just reminds me of her, she’s so blue coded to me! I feel like this is probably her favorite color of blue…perhaps reminds her of her beloved Harry’s eyes 😉.

I hope you love these ornaments, Caity! Wishing you the best New Year!

[darkmaga-returns]

We are pleased to announce that the audiobook version of The Final Pandemic - An Antidote to Medical Tyranny has been completed and approved for international distribution. When we first published the print and electronic versions in February 2024 we received a tremendous response and for a couple of days made it into the top 100 of all books being sold on Amazon! This was achieved even with many of our book sales going through lulu.com (20% discount code 'BAILEY20').

Within days of publication of The Final Pandemic the requests started coming through for an audiobook. As many of you will know I produced an audiobook version of Virus Mania in 2021 and apparently my Kiwi accent was well-received. So I spent many months over 2024 producing this new audiobook featuring Dr Sam’s down-under accent once again.

We will continue to provide a free and downloadable PDF that contains all of The Final Pandemic's references & notes with live links.

The Final Pandemic audiobook is available NOW through these suppliers:

Audible

Google Play

Nook Audiobooks

Storytel

Libro.FM

Kobo, Walmart

References

"The Final Pandemic", Dr Sam Bailey, 2024

Virus Mania, 3rd English Edition, 2021

"References & Notes", The Final Pandemic, 2024

“Dan Roytas: Can You Catch A Cold?”, Dr Sam Bailey, 6 Apr 2024

A Farewell to Virology, Dr Mark Bailey, 2022

[matthughesart]

Look what I found - Ethereal Visions LUNA TAROT DECK (limited Kickstarter edition).

Halloween decorating has brought a surprise! It's amazing what you find when you move some boxes around to reach the plastic skeletons in the back! 

This is the Kickstarter edition of the Ethereal Visions Tarot Luna Edition from March 2021 that is limited to only 1500. We sold out of this edition in late 2021 (or at least we thought we had). These are now up on our website on sale for $55 plus shipping (normally $65)

We have just a few cases so when these are gone they really will be forever SOLD OUT

Use code SPOOKYFREE for free US shipping site wide until November 1st

[usafphantom2]

Phantom Phantoms & 4000 other Phantoms

Hush KitFebruary 1, 2021

On this day in 1971, the 4000th F-4 Phantom was delivered. To celebrate use discount code PHANTOM4000 for a phabulous 20% discount on The Hush-Kit Book of Warplanes (today only). Pre-order here.

Everyone loves the F-4 Phantom, a brutal smoking Cold War monster that polluted the sky in an apocalyptic belch of black sooty thunder. As thrilling as the actual Phantoms that entered service were, there is a tantalising family of F-4s that almost made it into the real world. Several of them were cancelled for being too good and threatening sales of newer aircraft — and one succeeded in its role as a unique test aircraft. Here are some of the Phantoms that never were.

RF-4X Mach 3 Hellraiser

In the 1970s, the Israeli air force wanted a reconnaissance aircraft capable of carrying the extremely impressive HIAC-1 camera. The F-4 was considered, but the G-139 pod that contained the sensor was over 22 feet long and weighed over 4000 pounds – and the Phantom did not have the power to carry such a bulky store and remain fast and agile enough to survive in hostile airspace. One solution was to increase the power of the engines with water injection, something that had been done for various successful F-4 record attempts. This combined with new inlets, a new canopy and huge bolt-on water tanks promised a mouth-watering 150% increase in power. This would have allowed a startling top speed of mach 3.2 and a cruising speed of mach 2.7. This level of performance would have made the F-4X almost impossible to shoot-down with the technology then in service.

The F-4X would also have been a formidable interceptor – something that threatened the F-15 development effort, causing the State Department to revoke an export licence for the RF-4X. Even with the increase in power, the Israeli air force was still worried about the huge amount of drag, but a solution came in the form of a slimmed-down camera installation in a specially elongated nose. This meant the interceptor radar had to be removed, which assuaged the State Department’s fears and the project was allowed to continue. However worries from the F-15 project community returned (as did worries about how safe the F-4X would have been to fly) and the US pulled out. Israel tried to go it alone but didn’t have enough money, so the mach 3 Phantom never flew.

F-4E(F) ‘Ein Mann’

RAF F-4M-GA PHANTOM FG3.02_zps0yrydewe.jpg

The Luftwaffe are cheapskates: historical examples including their desire to procure a Eurofighter ‘Lite’ with no sunroof, stereo or defensive aids — and the fact they kept the F-4F in service until 2013! To be fair, their less than zealous desire for free-spending militarism is probably a good thing considering the 20th century. Their Deutschmark-saving instincts for poundshop versions of popular aircraft applied to the Phantom, and a simplified single-seat F-4E was considered. This intriguing option was passed up for a simplified F-4E, dubbed the F-4F (which later became formidable). I couldn’t find any illustrations of this variant so have included a mock-up of a speculative RAF single-seater.

The Hush-Kit Book of Warplanes will feature the finest cuts from Hush-Kit along with exclusive new articles, explosive photography and gorgeous bespoke illustrations.Order The Hush-Kit Book of Warplanes here

RF-4M ‘Big nosed Brit’

McDonnell Report B617 RF-4M

When the RAF ordered Phantoms they considered a dedicated reconnaissance version. McDonnell (it being 1966 — a year before the merger with Douglas) proposed a F-4M airframe with internal reconnaissance equipment. Known as the RF-4M (model 98HT), the longer camera nose would have made the aircraft over two and-a-half feet longer longer than a F-4M. Range would have been greater than a Phantom with an external recce pod, as this left the centreline station free for a drop-tank — and the removal of the Fire Control System and AIM-7 related hardware reduced weight. After considering the cost of such an undertaking, the RAF instead opted for an external recce pod meaning that any airframe in the fleet could perform the reconnaissance mission without sacrificing a beyond-visual-range weapon. Fascinating interview with a British Phantom pilot here.

[wordforwordbiblecomic]

NOVEMBER: Christmas Gifts, Portugese Comics, Faith Channel and more

NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER

This month:

Christmas Shopping

Portuguese Bible Comics

Great Commission Card Game Update

The Coloring Book and Acts needs your review

Patreon Hangout

+ more

Christmas Shopping!

The Word for Word Bible Comics make a great Christmas gift. And this year we’ve even got two titles all about Christmas!

Head to our Christmas Shop to see cards, t-shirts and hoodies.

Don’t forget you can save 25% on orders over £50 with discount code FIFTYQUIDPLUS

The Christmas Coloring Factbook

This coloring book features illustrations from the nativity of Jesus alongside historical and biblical facts about Christmas.

£3.99 for one or Just £15.99 for 5

The Christmas Nativity : Word for Word Bible Comic: NIV Translation

The Christmas Nativity has been told and retold probably more than any other story in existence, but many are unbiblical. Here we are presenting the story of Jesus' birth and childhood from the gospels of Luke (1:1-2:52 and 3:23-38), Matthew (1:1-2:23) and John (1:1-14) as one intertwined chronological narrative.

£8.99 FOR ONE, or Just £29.99 for 5

Verso a Verso A Bíblia em Quadrinhos

In 2021 we licenced the rights for BV Books in Brazil to create the Word for Word Bible Comic in Portuguese. I just discovered that they recently launched and are now available and called: Verso a Verso A Bíblia em Quadrinhos

https://www.bibliaversoaverso.com.br/

Great Commission Game: Update

We’ve sent out all the books to backers who have filled in their surveys now, and we’ve been working hard on the game to get it ready for playtesting.

About two weeks ago we went through every card ensuring the abilities were balanced and reflected what they represented well. As a result, we are even more confident that the game will be really fun and get you thinking about real church life.

As an example, the Trouble card “Gossip” used to “Return the member with the lowest Recover Cost to the World”. Now it increases the amount of health damage you take from facedown/hidden Troubles within the church. This makes it more thematic but also interesting as you can get rid of it like normal or you can afford to bear it for a while as long as you don’t have any hidden trouble (sin, conflict etc) in your church, giving you options and strategies on how and when to deal with the issue.

We are printing out a test draft of the cards as we speak and hope to have the full game available for backers to access on Tabletop Simulator in the next week or two. We playtested all the new cards last night and it’s working really nicely. Keep an eye out on your KS update and the Discord channel which will spring to life at that time.

FaithChannel Advert

There’s a relatively new website called FaithChannel, which is like a Christian Netflix that’s growing in popularity. I recently had a meeting with the owners and plan to run adverts on there in the next couple of months to see if we can reach more people with news about the Word for Word Bible Comic.

Acts and The Christmas Coloring Factbook need your Review

The Christmas Coloring Factbook launched in the shops yesterday but has no reviews or even star ratings online yet. If you liked this book and the Book of Acts, please head to Amazon and Goodreads and add your star rating.

https://www.amazon.com/Acts-Apostles-Bible-Comic-Translation/dp/1914299140 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/205656466-acts-of-the-apostles

https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Coloring-Factbook-Amadeus-Pillario/dp/1914299159https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/212187699-christmas-coloring-factbook

Patreon Hangout

Soon we will be having a video call with our patrons. It’s a chance to hang out, ask questions and discuss what books are coming on the horizon. If you’d like to be there and you’re not a patron, start supporting today and you can be at our Patron exclusive online meetups.

Other offers

Follow our Social media outlets for updates on offers and unique sale items as we get close to Christmas

Facebook Page- https://www.facebook.com/wordforwordbiblecomic

X/Twitter - https://twitter.com/WforWBibleComic

Pinterest - https://uk.pinterest.com/wforwbiblecomic/

YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/c/wordforwordbiblecomic

Tiktik: https://www.tiktok.com/wordforwordbiblecomic

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wordforwordbiblecomic/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/wforwbiblecomic.bsky.social

Masadon: https://mastodon.social/@WordforWordBibleComic

Reddit- https://www.reddit.com/user/Word4WordBibleComic

Tumblr - http://wordforwordbiblecomic.tumblr.com/

Prayer Requests

Gospels into Prisons: We are partnering again with the OPTIM charity to get many Bible Comics and gospels into UK prisons. This is being augmented by our Kickstarter backers too. Please pray this goes smoothly and God’s Word is life-changing for these inmates! FaithChannel Advert: Please pray this venture is successful and that the video I create for the ad works well with the audience.

Portuguese Versions: Please pray the Portuguese title takes off in a big way. The Action Bible has been having a resurgence in popularity recently and it would be great to get on that wave!

Other Languages: We’ve had slow progress selling the rights to other languages so far, please pray with me that this Portuguese version will be successful and be the first domino in releasing many other languages around the world!

[adamsmithblogger]

Financial Misconduct Leads to Suspension and Fine for Broker

Recent Regulatory Action Involving Barry Lee Garapedian:

The financial services industry is heavily regulated to ensure the protection of investors and maintain trust in the system. Stockbrokers and financial advisors are expected to follow strict ethical standards, with regulatory bodies like the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) enforcing compliance. When individuals violate these rules, they face serious consequences, including fines, suspensions, or even permanent bans from the industry.

In a recent case, a California-based stockbroker has faced sanctions for falsifying records and other misconduct. This case serves as a reminder of the need for accountability in the financial sector and the potential repercussions of failing to adhere to industry standards.

Barry Lee Garapedian of Westlake Village, CA, a stockbroker registered with Morgan Stanley, has been fined $5,000.00 and suspended for three months from associating with any Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) member in any capacity because Garapedian caused the securities broker dealer to maintain false records or books. Letter of Acceptance, Waiver, and Consent No. 2021070477901 (November 28, 2022).

According to the AWC, from July 2014 through November 2016, Garapedian falsified the representative code for 417 transactions when he was registered with Morgan Stanley. Therefore, Garapedian violated FINRA Rules 2010 and 4511.

FINRA Public Disclosure shows that Garapedian has been referenced in sixteen total customer-initiated investment-related disputes concerning Garapedian’s conduct while associated with securities broker dealers, including Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and Morgan Stanley. On December 13, 2008, a customer-initiated investment-related complaint involving Garapedian’s conduct was settled for $1,500,000.00 in damages based on allegations that Garapedian failed to follow instructions in connection with auction rate securities transactions.

On October 5, 2017, another customer filed an investment-related complaint involving Garapedian’s conduct in which the customer requested compensation based on allegations that Garapedian made unsuitable recommendations of variable annuities and exchange-traded funds.

Garapedian was also referenced in a complaint filed on March 20, 2018, in which the customer requested $106,178.00 in damages based on allegations that Garapedian made unsuitable recommendations of stocks and closed-end funds.

On November 15, 2018, a different complaint involving Garapedian’s conduct was settled for $110,000.00 in damages based on allegations that Garapedian charged excessive fees, made unsuitable recommendations, and overconcentrated the customer’s accounts in certain stocks, exchange-traded funds, and closed-end funds.

Garapedian was also referenced in a FINRA securities arbitration claim that was settled for $170,000.00 in damages based on allegations that Garapedian made unsuitable recommendations of unit investment trusts, exchange-traded funds, and closed-end funds. FINRA Arbitration No. 18-01057 (July 22, 2019).

On February 26, 2021, another customer filed an investment-related complaint involving Garapedian’s conduct in which the customer requested compensation based on allegations that Garapedian made misrepresentations of material fact in connection with the recommendation and sale of investments.

Garapedian was also referenced in a FINRA securities arbitration claim that settled for $1,414,268.49 in damages based on allegations that Garapedian made unsuitable recommendations of variable annuities and exchange-traded funds. FINRA Arbitration No. 21-01979 (December 5, 2022).

Garapedian was associated with Morgan Stanley in Westlake Village, CA, as a stockbroker from June 2009 to February 2021. On January 31, 2021, Morgan Stanley permitted Garapedian to resign based on allegations that Garapedian submitted transactions in violation of an agreement.

Implications and Takeaways:

This case highlights the importance of transparency and accountability in financial transactions. It serves as a reminder to investors and professionals alike to be vigilant in ensuring that their practices comply with regulations, as any misconduct can lead to serious penalties and long-term consequences for both parties involved.

[sigmasolveinc]

5 Ways Nopcommerce Will Help You Get More Business

In 1994, the first item ordered online at Amazon was a book. This $12.48 transaction made history and signaled the world that the “internet is open” for online transactions. Today, the e-commerce industry has grown into a trillion-dollar industry.

Data from Statista shows that e-commerce sales worldwide hit a staggering $4.3 trillion in 2021, and the number is growing by the day. With the shift towards digital retail moving at the speed of light, many companies plan to go online.

The common dilemma that many retailers face is which e-commerce platform to choose when starting their venture.

One platform—nopCommerce, stands tall above the competition, offering rich and transformational functionalities to small and medium-sized stores. We’ll delve into the crux of nopCommerce and explain why it’s the best platform for your business.

What Is nopCommerce? nopCommerce is a free and open-source ecommerce solution for all businesses. It powers tens of thousands of online stores worldwide, including reputable brands like Volvo, Reebok, North Face, and Hyatt Hotels.

ecommerce solutions The platform offers cutting-edge features and functionalities anyone would expect in a world-class e-commerce platform, including:

Product comparison tools

User reviews

Shipping management

Discount options

Marketing

Mobile access

Data security Unlike other solutions, nopCommerce is based on the ASP.NET framework and Microsoft SQL Server 2012 back-end database.

Since its inception in 2008, nopCommerce has won numerous prestigious awards, including CMScritic’s “Best eCommerce for SMB” award and the Packt Open-Source Award.

Online Business Problems that nopCommerce Solves From scale to sales, online businesses face many challenges at various stages due to primarily choosing an inadequate and inefficient eCommerce development platform. Traditional eCommerce development platforms were focused only on offering essential digital commerce solutions.

Meanwhile, modern platforms ensure customization, integration, scalability, security, and innovation for businesses to cut through competition and continuously improve their bottom line. Let’s evaluate how nopCommerce eliminates those challenges that online businesses face.

Problem: Limited Customization Nowadays, developing eCommerce platforms means selecting a template. Every business requires unique features to stand out in a crowded marketplace. A Salesforce study suggests that 64% of customers expect businesses to provide unique and tailored shopping experiences. When eCommerce development platforms do not offer customization, online businesses suffer due to a lack of trust and reliability.

Solution: nopCommerce Flexibility nopCommerce ensures that developers can modify codes the way they want and build plugins to support their eCommerce solution with unique features that competitors do not have. This open-source flexibility helps businesses craft unique user interfaces and, thereby, unique and tailored customer experiences. Integrating AI and automation solutions with an eCommerce platform becomes a catalyst in giving a brand a unique identity.

Problem: High Operational Costs Running an eCommerce store is expensive until a business reaches a breakeven point. In addition to its own offline and online operations costs, an eCommerce store requires many expensive add-on services. Integrating Cloud or RPA solutions automatically increases the costs. 43% of small business owners avoid going online due to the high costs of digital transformation, says a BigCommerce Study.

Solution: nopCommerce’s Cost-Effective Model The biggest relief for small and medium enterprises is that nopCommerce is a free eCommerce solution development platform that charges no recurring license fees. This self-hosted solution offers multiple in-built plugins to reduce the need to build costly plugins. Moreover, due to customization, businesses can have more control over features and functionalities to reduce the cost of features that come with templates. In many ways, nopCommerce stops eCommerce development costs from rising.

Problem: Poor Mobile Experience Smartphone penetration is an open secret worldwide. According to Statista analysis, mobile commerce is expected to grow to $710 billion by 2025. If an eCommerce store is not mobile-friendly, it won’t attract customers and increase conversions. Businesses that fail to provide a rich and effortless mobile experience will not only struggle against competitors but will struggle for survival.

Solution: Mobile-First Approach nopCommerce empowers eCommerce developers to build responsive user interfaces that fit all screen sizes and resolutions without incurring additional costs. nopCommerce’s mobile-first approach ensures that an eCommerce store maintains design continuity across the platforms. Besides, with mobile-friendliness, businesses can integrate and offer many mobile-only features to optimize conversion ratio through enhanced checkout processes.

Problem: Limited Scalability Imagine if a conversion rate drops by 4% for each additional second of load time. According to these statistics, businesses can’t even run their regular businesses if their eCommerce store is not scalable. Businesses are bound to grow, but their eCommerce store remains stagnant and inefficient in handling the increased traffic load and transactions. Consequently, the system gives up on increasing the load time and crashes during peak periods.

Solution: nopCommerce’s Scalable Architecture nopCommerce is a robust, secure, and scalable architecture that empowers eCommerce developers to build genuinely scalable digital commerce solutions that can house large product catalogs, run multiple stores, have wide category ranges, and handle the increased traffic effortlessly. It supports load balancing and multiple servers to keep the system optimized for additional capabilities to reduce load time, process more data, and maintain uptime during critical hours.

Problem: Inadequate Security Measures eCommerce stores are easy targets for hacking, phishing, and various other cyber threats as they house a lot of customer data and financially sensitive information. A 2023 Cybersecurity Ventures report predicts cybercrime will cost the world $10.5 trillion annually by 2025. Inadequate security apparatus invites maximum data breaches, causing massive financial and reputational losses to eCommerce businesses.

Solution: nopCommerce’s Strong Security Features Cybersecurity is of paramount importance for nopCommerce. In addition to providing quick and adequate security updates, nopCommerce delivers built-in SSL support, data encryption, and multi-layer authentication for safe and secure access. nopCommerce strictly follows PCI DSS requirements to process payments securely. Moreover, the nopCommerce community continuously identifies and updates threat potential and vulnerabilities to quickly resolve cyber threat-related issues. It also has a robust disaster recovery mechanism to protect personal and financial data.

Advantages of Using NopCommerce for Your Project With a plethora of options, it can be challenging for any business owner to determine the best ecommerce solution for their business. Here are the top reasons to choose nopCommerce for your project.

1. It’s an Open-Source Platform NopCommerce is an open-source platform, which means it’s free.

There are no upfront fees, subscription fees, or hidden fees to set it up. Anyone can download the source code and modify it to fit their custom requirements.

There is a common fallacy in the tech world that “free solutions” don’t receive security updates and aren’t backed by support.

But this is not true for nopCommerce. The platform has an active community of supporters and skilled developers who are continually working to maintain its standards and make it faster, safer, and more reliable.

2. It Offers Multi-Store Support The multi-store environment has become the new norm in the ecommerce community.

Retailers are no longer restricting the scope of their businesses to a single storefront. Instead, many are opting for multiple storefronts.

NopCommerce online retailers can set the following features separately per store:

Products per store

Product prices per store

Payments per store

Tax rules per store

Shipment methods per store

Content (newsletter, blogs, news) per store With the multi-store feature, retailers can create a nopCommerce marketplace where small vendors can sell their products separately.

3. Ready for Mobile Commerce (M-Commerce) In an age where mobile phone usage surpasses desktop, a mobile-friendly design is a must-have. Furthermore, the current shift to online shopping fueled by the novel COVID-19 pandemic has caused a surge in mobile commerce.

Experts predict that M-commerce will account for 72.3% of all sales by the end of 2021.

In line with the changing consumer behavior, savvy retailers are leveraging mobile-ready e-commerce platforms to grow sales. The nopCommerce platform offers free, mobile-friendly features that are ready to use out of the box.

In addition, nopCommerce enables store owners to easily create mobile versions of their sites without extra development work or add-ons.

4. Comes with Pre-Built Integrations Another great thing about nopCommerce is that it comes with pre-built integrations.

These integrations can save resources while allowing store owners to launch or revamp their online stores quickly. All nopCommerce integrations come from different nopCommerce developers experienced in building integrations for payments, shipping, etc.

For example, the platform is integrated with more than 50 payment getaways and methods, including PayPal, Alipay, WorldPay, and Stripe.

5. It’s Easy to Scale One of the most significant benefits that users get with nopCommerce is on-demand scalability. NopCommerce can work with cheap Windows hosting solution providers like SmarterASP and enterprise hosting solutions like Azure Cloud.

The Final Thoughts NopCommerce makes a strong case for being the best ecommerce development platform. It’s powerful, secure, and cost-effective. Plus, it comes with a plethora of features and functionalities that are hard to find elsewhere for free.

If you want to build a feature-rich, secure, and scalable e-commerce store, contact us at +1 954-397-0800 for a consultation. We offer a wide range of nopCommerce development services tailored to your unique needs.

[jcmarchi]

Using ChatGPT for sales - and why you need it in your sales enablement toolkit

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/using-chatgpt-for-sales-and-why-you-need-it-in-your-sales-enablement-toolkit/

Using ChatGPT for sales - and why you need it in your sales enablement toolkit

The rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots, like ChatGPT, has caused a ripple effect across every organization in the world. ChatGPT reached 100 million users two months after its launch.

Suddenly, the question on everyone’s mind was: “Is this going to replace my job?” – but with the AI’s limitations quickly making themselves known, the question changed.

Now, it’s: “Can I use ChatGPT to be more effective in my role?”

If you’re in sales enablement, the answer is a resounding yes. Using ChatGPT and conversational AI as part of your sales enablement strategy is a surefire way to increase your effectiveness and efficiency.

In this article, we’ll take a brief look at what ChatGPT is (and some disclaimers), before diving into how you can use it in sales, including:

Writing sales emails

Sales content

Competitive intelligence

Social selling and thought leadership

Coaching your sales team

Summarizing call recordings

A quick summary

If you want even more on ChatGPT for sales, SEC Ambassador Thomas Cheriyan spoke in-depth at our New York Summit about the applications in this article – not to mention, Thomas’ Cooking with ChatGPT smash-hit webinar was hosted on May 3 and you can catch the replay for free.

Let’s get started. 👇

What is ChatGPT?

💡

“ChatGPT is an advanced AI language model developed by OpenAI. It’s designed to understand and generate human-like text, enabling it to engage in conversation, provide information, or even write stories.

“Imagine ChatGPT as a highly intelligent digital assistant that can understand your questions or prompts and provide meaningful responses.

“It learns from a massive dataset containing various texts, like websites, books, and articles, and uses that knowledge to generate relevant and coherent answers.”

You might notice I’ve highlighted the previous lines of text – that’s because I asked ChatGPT to describe itself in understandable terms. Less than 10 seconds later, I received an answer and used it above.

It’s an incredibly useful AI tool, and its ability to generate text has been used as a starting point for blog posts like this, and even to write code for software developers.

It’s important to note that ChatGPT does have limitations – it has little understanding of events that happened after 2021, and can occasionally produce incorrect information, which is why it’s vital to fine tune and confirm anything it produces.

The more detailed you are with your prompt, the higher the quality of the answer you’ll receive.

However, the use of ChatGPT in sales has a lot of potential, so let’s get into some of the ways it can enhance aspects of your sales process.

Using ChatGPT for sales emails

Writing sales emails can be difficult. Whether it’s the subject line or the body copy, it can be difficult to create something that will resonate with your target audience or persona.

Not only that, but it’s time-consuming, especially for people who are more naturally inclined to be sellers, talking to prospects and closing deals rather than sitting at a desk drafting emails about a product or service.

How can ChatGPT help?

At the very least, it can give you a starting point, some inspiration to build from – saving you 30 minutes of staring at a blank screen trying to come up with the best way to phrase the email.

In a best case scenario, it can write an almost-perfect email in seconds.

The key is in the prompts you feed to ChatGPT’s machine learning language model. If you ask: “Help me write a sales email aimed at CFOs”, you’re unlikely to get anything worthwhile. The prompt is too vague.

Compare that with one of Thomas’ example prompts from his presentation in New York:

“I need help writing an email in 200 words or less. I’m an account executive at Salesforce. I’ll be sending this email to CFOs in the manufacturing sector in New York, who are not currently doing business with us. My goal is to have them respond back to me with the intent of scheduling a time for a discovery or demo call. Please also include a compelling subject line.”

The level of detail in that prompt will allow ChatGPT to generate a much more accurate, targeted email.

If you’re not happy with it, you can ask the AI to iterate:

“Can you shorten the email and make it more compelling?”

“Rewrite the email but make it more casual, conversational, and fun.”

By doing this, you’ll end up with four or five email templates, from which you can pick and choose the best parts. And the best part is it’ll probably take you half as long compared to writing them from scratch.

That means more time to generate leads, and more time to sell thanks to ChatGPT.

Thomas Cheriyan presenting at the Sales Enablement Summit in New York (2023)

Using ChatGPT for sales content

Sales enablement professionals are often responsible for the arduous task of creating content – our Sales Enablement Landscape Report found that close to half of respondents (38.7%) were involved in the creation process.

How can ChatGPT help here?

If you’ve ever suffered from writer’s block when trying to write a script for a training video, or a one-pager for sales reps on whatever piece of training you’ve been trying to reinforce, then ChatGPT is here to help.

Here’s a very basic example, just for the purpose of this article:

Prompt: “Write a script for a one minute sales training video, teaching sales development representatives the basics of the MEDDIC methodology.”

ChatGPT’s response:

Title: MEDDIC Methodology Basics for Sales Development Representatives

[INTRO: Exciting upbeat music and visuals of a team of sales representatives]

Narrator: “Welcome, future sales champions! Today, we’ll introduce you to the powerful MEDDIC methodology. In just one minute, you’ll learn the basics to help you qualify leads and close deals more effectively.” 

[Scene 1: Animated visuals of the MEDDIC acronym, with each letter highlighted as it’s explained]

Narrator: “MEDDIC stands for Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, and Champion. Let’s break it down.”

[Scene 2: Metrics]

Narrator: “Metrics – Understand the quantifiable results your solution can deliver. Show your prospects the potential return on investment.”

[Scene 3: Economic Buyer] 

Narrator: “Economic Buyer – Identify the person with the purchasing authority. Ensure they recognize the value of your solution.”

[Scene 4: Decision Criteria]

Narrator: “Decision Criteria – Learn what factors your prospect uses to evaluate solutions. Align your offering with their priorities.”

[Scene 5: Decision Process]

Narrator: “Decision Process – Determine the steps your prospect takes to finalize a decision. Adapt your sales process accordingly.” 

[Scene 6: Identify Pain] 

Narrator: “Identify Pain – Uncover your prospect’s pain points. Highlight how your solution can address their challenges.”

[Scene 7: Champion] 

Narrator: “Champion – Find a strong internal advocate within the prospect’s organization. They’ll help you navigate roadblocks and influence decision-makers.” 

[OUTRO: Exciting music, with visuals of sales representatives celebrating a closed deal]

Narrator: “And there you have it! With the MEDDIC methodology, you’re ready to conquer the sales world. Apply these principles, and watch your success skyrocket!”

[End screen: Company logo and contact information]

It’s certainly not perfect (and neither was our example prompt), but immediately you can see the advantage of working from this script rather than a blank page – you have a springboard for your work.

You could refine this further, through the iterative prompts we explained earlier. Ask the AI to make the script more formal, more concise, more fun, longer, or shorter.

The possibilities are almost endless – and more importantly they’re much more time-efficient than writing four or five script versions yourself.

ChatGPT doesn’t have to have any influence on the end product, either. You can use it just to generate ideas.

Prompts such as: “Give me five creative ideas for sales training sessions that will be fun and keep reps engaged” will return five answers in a matter of seconds.

Even if you don’t use one of ChatGPT’s ideas, it might act as a spark of inspiration.

Using ChatGPT for competitive intelligence

Competitive intelligence is key – your sales reps need to know how you match up to your competitors.

More importantly, they need to put themselves in a prospect’s shoes, in order to truly understand why a prospect would (or wouldn’t) choose a competitor over your product or service.

This requires one of two things – experience in the role, and hearing from prospects why they’re choosing competitors. Or, it requires time spent researching across your own sales content, the competitor’s websites, and more.

However, as Thomas demonstrated in New York, you can expedite this process by using the correct prompts in ChatGPT.

Here’s his example, looking at two popular CRM tools:

“How would you convince a CFO that they should consider buying Salesforce versus Zoho, even though Salesforce is more expensive?”

Thomas notes that this prompt includes a specific persona, a specific tool pitted against another, and focuses on the specific element of price. This is all part of the fine-tuning process – the more detail you include, the better.

Here’s what ChatGPT answers with when we put in that prompt:

When presenting the case for Salesforce to a CFO, focus on the long-term value, scalability, and customization capabilities that can outweigh the initial cost difference compared to Zoho. 

Consider these points to build a persuasive argument:

Comprehensive Feature Set: Highlight Salesforce’s extensive range of features and tools that cater to various business functions like sales, marketing, and customer support. Emphasize the platform’s ability to provide a unified solution for the entire organization, streamlining processes and improving efficiency.

Scalability: Explain that Salesforce is designed to grow alongside the company. As the organization expands and evolves, Salesforce can be easily scaled up to accommodate increasing demands, making it a long-term solution that can save resources in the future.

Customization and Integration: Point out that Salesforce offers extensive customization options and a vast ecosystem of third-party applications through the AppExchange. This allows the company to tailor the platform to their specific needs, creating a seamless experience that enhances productivity.

Advanced Analytics and Reporting: Stress the importance of Salesforce’s robust analytics and reporting capabilities, which can provide valuable insights into business performance, customer behavior, and sales trends. These insights can drive better decision-making and contribute to the company’s overall success.

Customer Success and Support: Mention Salesforce’s strong reputation for providing top-notch customer support and success resources, including a dedicated account manager, extensive documentation, and a large community of users. This ensures that the company will have access to the guidance and assistance needed to maximize their investment.

Proven Track Record: Share case studies and testimonials of other organizations that have successfully adopted Salesforce and experienced significant improvements in their sales processes, customer relationships, and overall business performance. These real-world examples can help the CFO visualize the potential benefits for their own company.

By emphasizing these points, you can make a compelling case for Salesforce as a strategic investment that delivers long-term value and supports the company’s growth, even if it comes with a higher initial price tag than Zoho.

That’s a great starting point for any new rep, and it becomes much quicker to supplement this initial overview with additional information, than provide it all from scratch.

As with all these prompts, ChatGPT isn’t perfect so don’t just put what it generates out into the world blindly. Use it as a tool to assist with and expedite these tasks.

Using ChatGPT for social selling and thought leadership

Social selling (ie. building relationships with prospects, usually through social media) is a growing part of a modern sales rep’s role. In addition to that, more and more sales reps are being encouraged to engage on LinkedIn, sharing insights and pieces of thought leadership.

This might not come naturally to some reps, or perhaps they’re keen to share on social media but aren’t quite sure where to start.

ChatGPT can help formulate a message to a prospect, a reply to a LinkedIn post shared by a prospect, or create the first draft of their own post.

As an example, here’s a prompt we used, along with ChatGPT’s reply:

Prompt: “Write a short, 50 word comment replying to a LinkedIn post about Thomas Cheryian’s webinar on using ChatGPT in sales. Be sure to express your eagerness to attend.”

ChatGPT’s response:

“Thomas Cheryian’s webinar on leveraging ChatGPT in sales sounds incredibly exciting! I’m eager to attend and discover innovative ways to enhance our sales process and drive results. Looking forward to gaining valuable insights from an industry expert. Count me in!”

Not bad, but it’s a little robotic. Our next prompt said: “Be more casual, and make the reply shorter.”

ChatGPT’s reply:

“Can’t wait for Thomas Cheryian’s ChatGPT in sales webinar! Super excited to learn new techniques and amp up our sales game. See you there! 🚀”

With just a few short sentences, the AI was able to create an organic reply to a hypothetical LinkedIn post.

For someone who isn’t fluent in social media jargon, or who’s nervous about putting their foot in their mouth – this is a great tool to help take that first step!

Using ChatGPT to coach your sales team

So far, these examples have largely involved ChatGPT creating text, to save you and your sales team time. But what about its conversational abilities? Can ChatGPT be used to help prepare reps for conversations with prospects?

As Thomas demonstrated in New York, the AI can be the perfect role-play buddy, helping a rep practice particularly tricky scenarios.

In his example, Thomas sets up an ‘unwinnable’ scenario, involving a CFO who will not budge or show interest in a discovery or demo call. We learn more from our failures than from our victories, so seeing how reps handle a conversation with a prospect who will never book another call can be enlightening.

Here’s the example prompt from Thomas:

“I am an enterprise sales rep at Salesforce trying to sell their core CRM platform. You are the CFO of Delta Airlines. You’re currently using a CRM solution from Oracle. I will cold call you and try to convince you why you should take a discovery or demo meeting with me. You should be as hot as possible and essentially be uninterested in learning more about Salesforce and try to give as many objections as possible. Are you ready to go?”

From there, you can observe your reps as they try to maneuver through this impossible scenario, as it’ll test their skill sets.

It’s not a replacement for traditional training, or even for live roleplays with peers, but it’s an excellent way to supplement a rep’s learning and practice.

Using ChatGPT to summarize call recordings

Not only can ChatGPT create text and have realistic conversation, it can also analyze the text you provide it with.

Nowadays, most sales calls are recorded. But it can be a hassle to go through them and find salient information, or to find action points from the conversation.

If you feed your transcript to ChatGPT, you can ask it to summarize the conversation into bullet points, list out the action points, or write a follow up email based on the contents of the transcript.

Or, as Thomas pointed out during his presentation, you can use the AI to apply a framework and analyze the conversation based on that.

He suggests using prompts like: “Can you recap what the action items were from the meeting and help me write up an email to send back to the prospect with next steps?” or “From this call transcript, what did we get from the MEDDIC framework, and what’s missing?”.

In reality, anything can be analyzed and summarized, even particularly long sales content that you’d like to shorten down into concise pieces.

This is another big time-saver if you’re using it right.

Wrapping up

As you can see, there are a multitude of ways to use ChatGPT for sales. Odds are that your teams are using it already – so make this fantastic technology an integral part of your sales enablement tech stack by formalizing how it’s used in your organization.

In short, here’s a brief rundown of use cases for ChatGPT in sales enablement:

Writing targeted sales emails

Eliminating writer’s block when creating sales content

Speeding up the competitive intelligence process

Helping reps engage in social selling and thought leadership

Creating specific role-play scenarios for your team

Summarizing call recordings and highlighting key moments within

Want to learn more about using ChatGPT in sales enablement?

SEC Ambassador Thomas Cheriyan hosted his Cooking with ChatGPT webinar on May 3 and dove into impactful ChatGPT prompts you can use in your organization – catch the free replay here!

Still not enough? Our 6,000+ strong Slack community has its own dedicated ChatGPT channel where you can chat with Thomas and other ChatGPT enthusiasts in the sales enablement space.

[jayanthitbrc]

Global M-commerce Payment Market Analysis 2024 – Estimated Market Size And Key Drivers

The M-commerce Payment by The Business Research Company provides market overview across 60+ geographies in the seven regions - Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, the Middle East, and Africa, encompassing 27 major global industries. The report presents a comprehensive analysis over a ten-year historic period (2010-2021) and extends its insights into a ten-year forecast period (2023-2033).

Learn More On The M-commerce Payment Market: https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/report/m-commerce-payment-global-market-report

According to The Business Research Company’s M-commerce Payment, The m-commerce payment market size has grown exponentially in recent years. It will grow from $9.84 billion in 2023 to $13.63 billion in 2024 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 38.5%. The growth in the historic period can be attributed to mobile internet adoption, secure payment technologies, e-wallets and mobile apps, convenience, improved mobile user experience.

The m-commerce payment market size is expected to see exponential growth in the next few years. It will grow to $52.31 billion in 2028 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40.0%. The growth in the forecast period can be attributed to contactless payments growth, biometric authentication, blockchain in mobile payments, integration of ai and machine learning, expansion of cryptocurrency payments. Major trends in the forecast period include qr code payments, in-app purchases, mobile banking integration, wearable device payments, peer-to-peer mobile payments.

The increasing mobile and internet penetration is expected to propel the growth of the m-commerce payment market. M-commerce payment is the use of wireless handheld devices like mobile phones and tablets to conduct commercial transactions online, including the purchase and sale of products, online banking, and paying bills. The increasing internet access and penetration allow more people to access m-commerce services, driving the market. According to Data Reportal, a Singapore-based business intelligence company, as of October 2021, 4.88 billion people (almost 62%) in the world are using the internet. According to forecasts from Ericsson and The Radicati Group, the number of smartphone users is expected to increase from 6.05 billion in 2020 to nearly 7.33 billion by 2025. Therefore, increasing mobile and internet penetration is driving the m-commerce payment market growth.

Get A Free Sample Of The Report (Includes Graphs And Tables): https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/sample.aspx?id=5863&type=smp

The m-commerce payment market covered in this report is segmented –

1) By Payment Method: Near Field Communication, Premium SMS, Wireless Application Protocol, Direct Carrier Billing 2) By Mode of Transaction: Mobile Retailing, Mobile Booking or Ticketing, Mobile Banking, Mobile Billing 3) By End-use Industry: Retail, Hospitality And Tourism, IT And Telecommunication, BFSI, Media And Entertainment, Healthcare, Airline

The use of digital wallets is a key trend gaining popularity in the m-commerce payment market. Digital wallets are a software-based system that securely stores users' payment information and passwords for numerous payment methods and websites. By using a digital wallet, users can complete purchases easily and quickly. For instance, in 2021, India-based mobility solutions company, Comviva, launched its next generation digital wallet and payment platform, mobiquity Pay X. The new platform significantly strengthens security with robust authentication and authorization modules and powers over 70 digital wallets and payment services.

The m-commerce payment market report table of contents includes:

Executive Summary

Market Characteristics

Market Trends And Strategies

Impact Of COVID-19

Market Size And Growth

Segmentation

Regional And Country Analysis . . .

Competitive Landscape And Company Profiles

Key Mergers And Acquisitions

Future Outlook and Potential Analysis

Contact Us: The Business Research Company Europe: +44 207 1930 708 Asia: +91 88972 63534 Americas: +1 315 623 0293 Email: info@tbrc.info

Follow Us On: LinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/company/the-business-research-company Twitter: https://twitter.com/tbrc_info Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBusinessResearchCompany YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC24_fI0rV8cR5DxlCpgmyFQ Blog: https://blog.tbrc.info/ Healthcare Blog: https://healthcareresearchreports.com/ Global Market Model: https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/global-market-model

[finishinglinepress]

FLP CHAPBOOK OF THE DAY: Ear to the Ground by Harriet Stratton

On SALE now! Pre-order Price Guarantee: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/ear-to-the-ground-by-harriet-stratton/

Poems in Ear to the Ground remember Stratton’s father and mother and draw from the #lifestyle that like an album of fading snapshots backgrounds her upbringing on a #Colorado #cattle #ranch. There, she learned to remember on a cultural level, too. Traces of things forgotten in have led her to study prehistoric language; pictures written on stone, petroglyphs and pictographs, and marks left on the surface of the earth. In the blender of language remembered and forgot, she strives to interpret the code. As Lawrence Raab writes, “the past isn’t over until we understand it”.

Harriet Stratton’s work has appeared in Pilgrimage Magazine, Windward Review, and among other publications, Passager Journal. “While Making Fence with My Father” was featured in their Burning Bright podcast on Father’s Day, 2022. Her work is anthologized in An Uncertain Age, Poems by Bold Women of a Certain Age (Ink Sisters Press, 2021) and Rumors, Secrets & Lies, Poems About Pregnancy, Abortion & Choice (Anhinga Press, 2022). The editors of Anhinga Press nominated Harriet’s poem, “Caught in Amber” for a 2023 Pushcart Prize. This is her first chapbook. Harriet lives and writes atop a red rock butte in Perry Park, Colorado. A longtime member of Denver’s Lighthouse Writer’s Workshop, she graduated from the Poetry Book Project and remains a member of the Poetry Collective. Formally educated in Design and Art Education, Stratton practiced what she taught – painting, drawing and printmaking – in a 25-year teaching career.

Please share/please repost #flpauthor #preorder #AwesomeCoverArt #poetry #chapbook #read #poems

[amarketeers]

The Benefits of Using WordPress for E-commerce 💸

E-commerce is booming, especially after the pandemic that accelerated the shift to online shopping. According to Statista, global e-commerce sales were $5.2 trillion in 2021, and it is expected to reach $8.1 trillion by 2026.

If you want to tap into this huge market and sell your products or services online, you need a reliable and robust e-commerce platform that can handle your business needs and goals. But with so many options available, how do you choose the best one for your online store? 🤔

In this article, I will share with you why WordPress is one of the best e-commerce platforms you can use to create and grow your online store. WordPress is not only the most popular content management system (CMS) in the world, powering over 40% of all websites on the internet, but also a powerful and flexible e-commerce solution that offers many benefits for online sellers.

Here are some of the benefits of using WordPress for e-commerce:

1. WordPress is free and easy to use

One of the main advantages of WordPress is that it is free and open source, which means you don’t have to pay any license fees or royalties to use it. You can download it from WordPress.org and install it on your own web hosting account in minutes.

WordPress is also very easy to use and set up, even if you are not a tech-savvy person. You can create and manage your online store with a simple and intuitive interface that lets you add products, categories, images, descriptions, prices, etc. without any coding skills.

You can also customize your online store with thousands of themes and plugins that add functionality and features to your website. You can find themes and plugins for any niche or industry, from fashion to food, from photography to fitness, from books to beauty, etc.

2. WordPress is SEO friendly

Another benefit of WordPress is that it is SEO friendly, which means it helps your website rank higher on search engines like Google or Bing. This can help you increase your organic traffic and conversions, as more people will find your online store when they search for products or services related to your niche.

WordPress has many built-in features that make it SEO friendly, such as:

Permalinks: WordPress lets you create SEO-friendly URLs for your pages and posts that include keywords and are easy to read by humans and search engines.

Title tags and meta descriptions: WordPress lets you add title tags and meta descriptions to your pages and posts that tell search engines what your content is about and entice users to click on your links.

XML sitemaps: WordPress automatically generates XML sitemaps that list all your pages and posts and submit them to search engines so they can index them faster and more accurately.

Mobile responsiveness: WordPress themes are designed to be responsive, which means they adapt to different screen sizes and devices, such as smartphones or tablets. This improves the user experience and the SEO performance of your website, as mobile-friendliness is a ranking factor for Google.

You can also use plugins like Yoast SEO or All in One SEO to optimize your website further for SEO by adding features like:

Breadcrumbs: Breadcrumbs are navigation links that show users where they are on your website and help them navigate back to previous pages. They also help search engines understand the structure and hierarchy of your website.

Schema markup: Schema markup is code that adds structured data to your website that tells search engines more information about your content, such as product reviews, ratings, prices, availability, etc. This can help you get rich snippets on search results that attract more clicks and conversions.

Social media integration: Social media integration lets you connect your website with your social media profiles and pages, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. This can help you increase your social media presence and traffic, as well as improve your SEO performance by getting social signals that indicate the popularity and relevance of your content.

3. WordPress is scalable and secure

WordPress is also a scalable and secure platform that can handle any size or type of online store. Whether you have a few products or thousands of products, whether you have a few visitors or millions of visitors, WordPress can handle it without compromising the speed or performance of your website.

WordPress is scalable because it can work with any web hosting provider or plan that suits your budget and needs. You can start with a shared hosting plan that is cheap and easy to set up, and then upgrade to a VPS, dedicated, or cloud hosting plan that offers more resources and features as your online store grows.

WordPress is also secure because it has a strong and active community of developers and users that constantly update and improve the core software, themes, and plugins. You can also use plugins like Sucuri or Wordfence to add extra layers of security to your website, such as:

Firewall: A firewall is a system that monitors and blocks malicious traffic and requests that try to access your website and cause harm, such as hacking, spamming, or injecting malware.

Malware scanning: Malware scanning is a process that scans your website files and database for any signs of infection or corruption by malware, such as viruses, trojans, worms, etc.

Backup and restore: Backup and restore is a feature that lets you create and store copies of your website files and database in a safe location, such as a cloud service or an external drive. This can help you recover your website in case of any disaster or emergency.

4. WordPress is flexible and versatile

WordPress is also a flexible and versatile platform that lets you create any kind of online store you want. You can sell any type of product or service, such as:

Physical products: Physical products are tangible items that you ship to your customers, such as clothing, jewelry, books, etc.

Digital products: Digital products are intangible items that you deliver to your customers electronically, such as ebooks, music, software, etc.

Services: Services are activities or tasks that you perform for your customers, such as consulting, coaching, designing, etc.

You can also use WordPress to create different types of online stores, such as:

Dropshipping: Dropshipping is a business model where you sell products from third-party suppliers without having to handle inventory, fulfillment, or shipping. You can use plugins like AliDropship or WooDropship to connect your WordPress website with suppliers like AliExpress or Amazon and automate the dropshipping process.

Subscription: Subscription is a business model where you sell products or services on a recurring basis, such as monthly or yearly. You can use plugins like WooCommerce Subscriptions or MemberPress to create and manage subscription plans and payments on your WordPress website.

Marketplace: Marketplace is a business model where you allow other sellers to sell their products or services on your website and earn a commission from each sale. You can use plugins like Dokan or WC Vendors to turn your WordPress website into a multi-vendor marketplace like Etsy or eBay.

5. WordPress is compatible and integrable

WordPress is also a compatible and integrable platform that lets you connect your online store with other tools and platforms that can help you grow your business. You can use plugins or APIs to integrate your WordPress website with:

Payment gateways: Payment gateways are services that process online payments from your customers using different methods, such as credit cards, PayPal, Stripe, etc. You can use plugins like WooCommerce Payments or WPForms to accept payments on your WordPress website.

Shipping providers: Shipping providers are services that handle the delivery of your physical products to your customers using different carriers, such as USPS, FedEx, UPS, etc. You can use plugins like WooCommerce Shipping or Easyship to calculate shipping rates and print shipping labels on your WordPress website.

Marketing tools: Marketing tools are services that help you promote your online store and reach more customers using different channels, such as email marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, etc. You can use plugins like Mailchimp or HubSpot to connect your WordPress website with marketing tools and automate your marketing campaigns.

Analytics tools: Analytics tools are services that help you measure and analyze your online store performance and customer behavior using different metrics, such as traffic sources, conversion rates, bounce rates, etc. You can use plugins like Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights or WooCommerce Google Analytics Integration to connect your WordPress website with analytics tools and track your e-commerce data.

Conclusion

WordPress is a great platform for e-commerce, as it offers many benefits for online sellers, such as:

Free and easy to use

SEO friendly

Scalable and secure

Flexible and versatile

Compatible and integrable

With WordPress, you can create and grow your online store with minimal cost and hassle, and enjoy the freedom and control over your e-commerce business.

If you are interested in creating your own e-commerce website with WordPress, you can start by choosing a reliable and affordable web hosting provider like Bluehost, which offers a free domain name, a free SSL certificate, and a one-click WordPress installation.

Then, you can choose a beautiful and customizable theme for your online store, such as Astra, Divi, or OceanWP.

Next, you can add e-commerce functionality to your website with plugins like WooCommerce, which is the most popular and powerful e-commerce plugin for WordPress.

Finally, you can add some extra features and functionality to your website with plugins like Yoast SEO, Social Snap, Contact Form 7, WP Rocket, WooCommerce Subscriptions, etc.

By following these steps, you can create a stunning e-commerce website with WordPress that can help you sell more products or services online and grow your business. 🚀

If you found this article helpful, please share it with your friends and colleagues. And if you have any questions or feedback, please leave a comment below. I would love to hear from you. 💬

#WordPress #Ecommerce #Website #Business #Online

[europeposts]

Scrivener's Books and Bookbinding

Bookstore in Buxton, England

Address: 42 High St, Buxton SK17 6HB, United Kingdom

Hours: Closed ⋅ Opens 10 AM

Phone: +44 1298 73100

Merry Christmas, folks. A big thank you, to our customers, for supporting us this year (and every year). We look forward to seeing you all… | Instagram

Scrivener’s Books & Bookbinding in Buxton

Book lovers, look no further. Scrivener’s is an Aladdin’s Cave for anyone who enjoys whiling the hours away browsing shelves in search of their next great read, or stumbling across rare antiquarian finds. Included in the Guardian’s top 10 second-hand bookshops in the UK, this national gem located in a former Victorian shop has a quintessential, old-worldly charm. Don’t be fooled by its humble outward appearance, however. Inside awaits five floors brimming with over 40,000 books, from good-as-new popular print to hard-to-find editions and unusual collectable items. The expansive range of genres includes art, architecture, history, sci-fi, children’s fiction, graphic novels and comics, biographies, plays and poetry, the classics, typography, ‘all the ologies’, and travel – plus a selection of greeting cards, maps and sheet music.

Browsing is encouraged and a set of comfy sofas furnished with tea and coffee facilities on the first floor makes the activity all the more pleasurable. Upon entering, make sure to take in the traditional bookbinders’ workshop on the ground level – where old books are restored and new ones made to order – before heading all the way up to the attic, or down to the old kitchen cellar where a tiny Victorian Museum (stocked with Victorian books) can be found. Scrivener’s is also a performance space with its own resident theatre company, and hosts regular events including book signings by local and visiting authors. Meanwhile, its Staircase Gallery offers a changing programme of exhibitions featuring works for sale by local artists; and Buxton’s drop-in storytelling group meets in the shop every second Sunday of the month (2-3.30pm), if you fancy listening to a tale or sharing one of your own.

This is a supremely warm and friendly bookshop that welcomes kids (look out for the resident tiger!) and those of all interests. Should you happen to be in Buxton on a rainy afternoon, we guarantee you’ll find no better place to be.

42 High StreetBuxtonSK17 6HB

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Email:scrivbooks@hotmail.co.uk

Telephone:0129873100

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Scrivener's Books & Bookbinding in Buxton - Creative Tourist

Buxton

Town in England

Buxton scene, autumn

Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, in the East Midlands region of England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some 1,000 feet above sea level. It lies close to Cheshire to the west and Staffordshire to the south, on the edge of the Peak District National Park. 

Dialling code: 01298, OS grid reference: SK059735

Population: 20,048 (2021), Postcode district: SK17

Region: East Midlands, Shire county: Derbyshire

Buxton - Wikipedia

Peak District, United Kingdom

[projectcubicle1]

Cross-Cultural E-Commerce: Navigating Diversity in WooCommerce Development

Cross-Cultural E-Commerce: Navigating Diversity in WooCommerce Development

Introduction

There is little question that e-commerce could be a growing industry. E-commerce sales are expected to surpass $5 trillion by 2021, and consumers are spending longer online every year. This growth has led to a rise in demand for cross-cultural e-commerce development. However, many businesses fail after they attempt to implement new strategies without taking into consideration the unique cultural differences that exist within their target markets. during this post we'll explore a number of the foremost important factors for developing an efficient cross-cultural e-commerce strategy so you'll succeed where others have failed before you!

Understanding Cross-Cultural E-Commerce

Cross-cultural e-commerce is a complex and nuanced topic. To understand how to navigate the cultural differences of your target audience, you first need to understand the culture of both yourself (and your team) and your customers. To sell successfully across cultures, it is important not only to grasp how those cultures differ but also why those differences exist within the first place. Let's take a glance at a number of these reasons: People have different needs based on where they live or grow up for example, if someone grew up with access to certain foods or types of clothing but then moved somewhere else where those items weren't available readily, that person might have different tastes than someone who grew up eating spicy food every day or wearing jeans all year round (unless he was raised in Arizona). Some people may be more open-minded than others; this could make them more likely to try new things from other countries like foreign cuisine or clothing styles if they've been exposed before through travel experiences with friends who did so regularly before moving abroad together after college graduation day!

Navigating Cultural Diversity in E-Commerce

In the context of e-commerce, cultural diversity means more than just language. It also encompasses the way people shop online and pay for goods. Understanding these differences is important because they can affect your ability to reach new customers or improve existing relationships with current ones. For example, if you know that someone from a certain country prefers paying in cash over credit cards, then it would be helpful to make this option available when they're checking out on your website or app (and vice versa).

Leveraging Technology for Adaptation

A good example of this is often the employment of technology. Technology will be wont to adapt to local cultures, understand your customers and their needs, and understand your competition and their strategies. One such tool is ReactJS (a JavaScript library) which allows developers to build reusable components that are easy to maintain. This makes it easier for you as a developer because you do not have to rewrite code again if it changes at all, which means less time spent updating things around your site or app every time someone makes an update!

Case Study: WooCommerce Development in Dubai

To illustrate, let's take a look at some of the most important considerations for WooCommerce development in Dubai. Language and Communication As we mentioned before, Arabic is spoken by over 300 million people around the world and is an official language in many countries, including Saudi Arabia and Egypt. However, there are significant differences between written Arabic (used in books) and spoken Arabic (spoken by native speakers). The former has been standardized since the 9th century while the latter varies widely depending on where you go; this makes it challenging for developers who aren't familiar with either variety to create websites that appeal to both audiences. Social Media Marketing Strategies Another challenge is social media marketing strategies because there are different expectations when it comes to advertising online and these expectations change depending on whether you're targeting Westerners or Arabs! For example: if you want your product featured in an Instagram post about healthy living products being sold online during Ramadan (a holy month), then promoting yourself through influencers may be necessary because some companies won't advertise during this time period due to religious reasons...

User Trust and Payment Systems

Trust is critical to e-commerce success. A user must feel confident that their information is safe and secure, and that their payment will be processed efficiently. Payment systems are a big part of this trust, but they can pose challenges for cross-cultural e-commerce. For example, some countries have different tax rates than others or have other regulations that must be taken into account when processing payments through WooCommerce or any other payment gateway. And this isn't just applicable to international sales it also applies if you're selling within your own country but targeting customers with different cultural backgrounds than yours! In order to mitigate these risks while maintaining trust among users from diverse countries and backgrounds (and ensuring compliance with local laws), it helps to start by choosing an appropriate payment gateway that offers support in multiple languages across multiple currencies (like Stripe).

Language and Communication

Language is a barrier to cross-cultural e-commerce. But it's not the only one. Language is often used as shorthand for communication, but it's important to remember that language is just one part of communication. And while some languages may be more difficult than others, there are many other factors at play in cross-cultural e-commerce than just the language barrier: culture, values and norms all play a role in how people communicate with each other around the world! This means knowing how these things differ from place to place can help us better understand our customers when we're designing sites or apps for them even if they don't share our native tongue!

Social Media and Marketing Strategies

Social media is a great way to reach new customers. You can use social media to market your product, engage with customers and even provide customer service. Social media also provides an opportunity for research and development, as well as feedback on how your product is performing in the marketplace. While this may seem like common sense advice, many businesses don't understand how valuable social media marketing can be when it comes to cross-cultural eCommerce. In fact, some companies believe that since their target audience isn't online yet (or doesn't spend much time on Facebook), they shouldn't invest their resources into building up an online presence until those demographics catch up with everyone else! But wait why would we want our potential customers?

Future Trends in Cross-Cultural E-Commerce

As you can see, cross-cultural e-commerce is a complex topic. But the future of this industry looks bright. In fact, here are some of the key trends that we expect to see in 2019 and beyond: Social media will continue to be an important channel for reaching consumers around the world with ads and influencer campaigns. Mobile commerce will continue its rapid growth as more people shop on their phones than ever before especially in developing markets where there are fewer computers or laptops available for purchase (or even electricity). E-commerce and the internet of things (IoT) will become increasingly intertwined; products like smart speakers are becoming more popular every day because they allow consumers easy access to information about products without having go online first! This means more sales opportunities across all types of channels including brick-and-mortar stores where people still prefer talking face-to-face with sales associates instead of buying things online just yet...but maybe someday soon? ;)

Conclusion

We hope this article has helped you understand the complexities of cross-cultural e-commerce and the strategies to navigate them. We also highlighted some of the most important global markets for WooCommerce development and how they differ from Western countries. The future is bright for WooCommerce, as more people around the world are adopting digital technologies in their daily lives. As a result, we can expect cross-cultural e-commerce to grow even more rapidly than before! Read the full article

[mdshariful]

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