If it was a pressing issue, you start to experience a level of frustration. It feels like the company does not care about you as a customer. A typical response for many people would be to move on to the competitors.  

Now, look at it from a business owner’s perspective. Every time a customer has a bad experience, you lose them. 

Chatbot technology has been a game-changer in customer management. Installing the technology on your Shopify store has many benefits. We will show you which ones in our article below. 

But first, let’s start with a basic understanding of chatbots. 

Chatbots For Shopify; What Are They

A chatbot is a program or software that can simulate human conversation. The interaction can take place through text or voice. 

When looking for chatbots for Shopify, you will find different types. These are the most basic that you need to program with preset answers. They are excellent for handling questions that customers frequently ask. But, they do not have the ability to go outside the script. 

The more advanced AI chatbots have technologies that give them human-like abilities. Technologies like natural language processing and machine learning make them smarter. 

The AI bots learn human behavior through observation. They will, for example, look at a customer’s shopping habits. They can then make product recommendations based on such insights.

And that’s not all, when handling customer queries, they can modify responses depending on the question. 

Chatbot technology is fascinating, and a big boost for eCommerce platforms. You will see why below.  

Why Investing In Chatbots for Your Shopify Store Is A Good Idea?

 Let us look at some advantages of having chatbots in your Shopify store.

1. Chatbots for Shopify Store Provide Excellent 24/7 Customer Service 

Customer service is a major challenge for most business owners, whether offline or online. Hiring full-time staff can be expensive. 

And, human agents come with a host of issues that could impact service delivery. You have probably been a recipient of one who was having a bad day. 

With chatbots, you don’t have to deal with such challenges. The only thing you need to do is program the machine with the right instructions. 

After that, it picks up and handles customers, without needing human intervention. They do not get sick, require time off for whatever reason, or go to sleep. 

Shoppers have access to support 24/7. That means you can service your customers from all over the world without worrying about time differentials.  

2. Chatbots Assist Shoppers

Shopify introduced the chatbots Shopify Chat in August 2019. The aim was to give business owners an avenue to have real-time conversations with customers. And that’s not all, Shoppers were able to get assistance, thus improving the overall experience.

The technology can also provide answers to questions about products. Shoppers get updates on their orders, recommendations, and access to discount codes. The bots can handle simultaneous conversations. It is unlike a human agent who can only speak to one person at a time. 

Providing a seamless experience on the e-commerce platform will have customers coming back. For the business, it means an increase in the number of sales. 

 3. Chatbots Can Sway Purchasing Decision

What is the one thing you find you do not like about salespeople? For most, it is the fact that they can be pushy. This is understandable because they do have to meet their targets. But the approach does not always work out in their favor. 

Conversational marketing through chatbot technology can sway purchasing decisions. First, it is an interaction, which means dialogue. The second is that the conversations are friendly. 

The reality is many people do not even realize that they are chatting with bots. It makes shoppers feel comfortable and more receptive to the purchasing process. 

And, it gets better due to the personalization that comes from product recommendations. The Shopify chatbots collect data, analyze it, and generate useful insights specific to each shopper. Targeting, retargeting, upselling and cross-selling become easy with such information.

4. Reduce Abandoned Carts with Chatbots 

Not everyone who visits your e-commerce platform will leave with an item. 69.8% of shoppers will abandon their carts for various reasons. 49% will do so because of high shipping costs.

A complicated checkout process accounts for 18%. Other reasons include slow delivery, account creation requirements, and crushing websites. But, it does not mean that you need to let such potential customers go. 

Sometimes, all they need is a little attention or nudge to return and complete the purchase. You can schedule the Shopify bot to send out cart reminders. It is a more effective way of communicating than using emails. 

You may have hundreds of unopened emails sitting in your inbox right now. But, an instant message or notification is likely to get your immediate attention. 

Lack of information is also another factor that can make a customer leave without completing their checkout process. A chatbot provides an effective way to give critical information whenever they need it.  

Finally, some people will have items in the cart simply because they are browsing. At this point, they have not made a final decision on whether to buy or not. They may even start the checkout to see what the costs they may incur. 

Using chatbots to interact with such customers can result in conversions. Not only do they provide information that the customer may need. Use the opportunity to throw in any special offers to reel in the customer.  

Final thoughts 

Consider it an investment to have a chatbot for your Shopify store. We have looked at some advantages of the technology. They provide a fantastic way to keep your customers happy through excellent service 24/7. 

Chatbots are virtual shopping assistants and can give product recommendations. They can sway purchasing decisions and help reduce the number of abandoned carts. 

There is a lot to know about chatbots, so take the time to do a little more research. Finally, when looking for one, determine your business needs to help you choose the right chatbot for your Shopify store.

Suggested:

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The Significance of Complete Shopify App Development.

The post 4 Reasons Why Your Shopify Store Needs Chatbots appeared first on Tricky Enough.

Can you imagine the feeling when someone clicks on your website link and then leaves the page immediately? To make matters worse, they leave the page searching for a different site that has content like yours. It can be frustrating, right?

That’s why you need to start on the right footing by learning effective web design tips. This should help improve your WordPress performance and avoid bounces. After learning the tips, you must also spend some time implementing them.

Don’t worry if you aren’t familiar with the technical aspects of WordPress. You only need to spend more time learning your way out. You can also involve the website design experts if you feel the need.

But, first, let’s discover why your site might be underperforming.

Signs Your WordPress Might be Underperforming

1. You have Outdated Web Design

If you are sure that you haven’t updated your site’s design elements in a while, then you might need to update the design of your page. Most web visitors will be attracted by the design of your site.

Keep in mind that the first impression of your pages’ design elements can either make visitors stay or it can lead to bounces. With web pages, you get only one chance to make a good impression. Once a user gets bored with your page’s design, they might never visit again.

You should check whether your site appears too crowded or too empty. This will help you identify which aspects need improvement or changes.

2. Your Website Loads Very Slow

How fast your website loads whenever a visitor lands on it is crucial. Some users may click on your site to find the information they need immediately. If your page doesn’t load quickly, they might find another source with better performance. Keep in mind that a page that is slow to load gets an automatic high bounce rate. The longer your site loads, the more you’ll lose visitors and rank lower on Google.

According to Loadstorm, 1 out of 4 people will leave a website that takes at least 5 seconds to load. This translates to 74% of users that will leave a page after 5 seconds of waiting for it to load.

3. High Rate of Page Bounce

Google prioritizes the bounce rate in its rank algorithm. When the said algorithm detects that high bounce rate on your website, it’s an indicator that the content isn’t high quality. This may also mean that people didn’t really find what they were looking for when they clicked on your website.

People usually have very short attention spans. If they don’t quickly find what they’re looking for on your website, chances are, they’re going to look for it somewhere else. This might be due to a lack of helpful content, the overall design of the webpage, or the slow loading speed of the website. Hence, you should identify the causes of your high page bounce rate and find ways to improve them. If you need help resolving your website issues, you can hire a reliable web designer. You can read this blog post to help you find a reliable designer.

4. Poor Website Traffic

Poor website traffic is when you may not be converting into sales. This might be due to particular holes in your site’s content. The best way out is using Google Analytics to calculate ways you can improve your content.

Good content will always convert browsers into recurring customers. In some instances, the user experience could be what is costing you sales. As such, it may be time to do some groundwork and discover what, in particular, needs improvement. For example, if your site isn’t interactive, it may be time to include a section where users can send their feedback or questions at the least.

5. The website is not Mobile-Friendly 

In the present day, technology continues to change the ways of doing things. You find that internet users spend most of their online time using mobile devices. Statista reveals that by 2020, over 90% of the worldwide internet population used mobile devices to go online.

Interestingly, the percentage keeps on rising. The same study by Statista indicates that by 2020, the number of new mobile internet users stood at 4.28 billion. This explains why mobile responsiveness is very important when it concerns a positive user experience. 

Even then, search engines such as Google are always alert. They will consider mobile load times when ranking your website. This is just how far a mobile-unfriendly WordPress site can cost you.

Again, Google employs mobile-first indexing whenever they rank websites. You can earn penalties if the user experience is not mobile-friendly. This is when users cannot have clear access to your web page using their mobile phones. 

Besides, whenever users continue to experience more than usual loading times, they will not stick around to check on your site when there are better competitor sites. This is where competitor analysis comes in handy. Having a strong knowledge of your rivals hands you the advantage and helps design a website that is always one step ahead of the pack.

Thus, to reap the most user benefits, you must focus on designing your site for a mobile-friendly and desktop-friendly user experience.

Top 6 Effective Web Design Tips to Improve Your WordPress Performance

1. Install a Plugin for Caching in WordPress

The pages in WordPress vary, meaning they’re built upon any time a post is visited on your website. WordPress must go through a process to find the essential information in order to build your pages. It then collects the info together and displays it to your potential users.

The process is very detailed. It is also why your website has a possibility to slow down when many people are visiting it at the same time. This explains why every WordPress site should use a plugin for caching. It can improve the loading of your WordPress site from twice to almost 5x faster than the usual loading time.

In essence, this is how it works;

With a caching plugin on your site, you don’t have to undergo the whole page creation process over and over again. Instead, your plugin creates a copy of the page you’re trying to load right after the first time it loads. It then serves the cached copy to each other user that follows.

2. Use the Right Font

As mentioned earlier, web performance is critical for your WordPress site. The font you choose determines the performance of your site. You don’t have to compromise your design when you can choose the right font that will work for your site.

To attract your WordPress site to users, you must be very wise in selecting fonts. Choose fonts with a sleek look and with a feel to them. You should also pick one that’s easy to read, as your content’s readability may influence a user’s experience when browsing your site. Some of the commonly used fonts include:

System Fonts

These are fonts included in every main operating system like Windows and macOS. When you use these fonts in your web design, you don’t need to load anything extra when a person clicks on your web page on your site.

System fonts look pretty good since they match the OS. The best thing about it is that; it doesn’t involve a download time with the browser! You can use it comfortably in your WordPress dashboard. Some users even claim that the system fonts look better on macOS versus Windows.

Most importantly, system fonts operate like web-safe fonts; they do not need any download time with the browser.

Web Fonts

The font appears beautiful but needs download time with the browser. The beauty about it is that; it has both free and premium options. Although it adds to the overall page weight of your site, it can operate from cached CDN. Providers are the likes of Google and Adobe Fonts (TypeKit).

Nonetheless, it helps reduce the total page weight on your website. By April 2020, web fonts summed up to approximately 6.2% of the total website’s weight. Well, the number may not seem huge but remember that every optimization made contributes to the website’s speed.

Web-Safe Fonts

Web Safe fonts are considered safe for many computers. Every computer with a browser installed has in-built default fonts. This enables text display on web pages.

This type of font is free. The browser also doesn’t need a download time. Web designers always recommend using web-safe fonts to avoid generic fonts like Times New Roman appearing on your website when users visit.

3. Work on Reducing Image Sizes

The bigger the images on your site, the greater the size of your webpage will be. The trick here is to reduce the image sizes without compromising on the image quality.

There are various ways you can work around including images on your pages without making it look low-quality or poorly designed.  

For one, you can talk to an expert web design company, and they’ll tell you that compressing images will drive conversion to your site. Paying attention to file types and images on your site could lead to smaller, more mobile-friendly images.

Ensure you remove unnecessary videos and animations that play automatically. Also, get rid of banners that rotate to help increase the site’s smooth running.

If you optimize the images manually using editing tools, the process may take a little longer. Thankfully, you can find all types of plugins you need for almost everything you need for your WordPress site, including image optimization.

Some of the plugins include WP Smush, Optimal, and EWWW image optimizer. Using any of these will help reduce image sizes, hence improving the website speed.

You can also adjust the placements of your images whenever you edit your website so that they don’t occupy the whole page. This may help improve the loading time and appearance of your site. Furthermore, paying attention to your multimedia materials will help provide a better browsing experience to your users.

4. Choose a Lightweight WordPress Theme

Web visitors get attracted to WordPress sites that contain appealing themes. You need to incorporate several dynamic elements, widgets, sliders, social icons, and other captivating themes. Well, the first impression will always count.

If you use different elements that appeal to the eye and higher page sizes, you will undoubtedly take your website a notch higher. The best step here is to apply lightweight themes. An example is where you can go for a default WordPress theme.

You can also create your own design if you don’t want your site to appear similar to existing ones that use a default theme.

5. Cut Down on the HTTP Requests

Anytime a visitor clicks on any of your web pages, their browser directs an HTTP request to your web server for the page to load. Each component on the page receives a different request.

Thus, every video, image, script, and stylesheet receives its own request. The more requests are sent to load the page, the extra time it takes to load. You can solve this issue by reducing the number of components.

Try to always combine the closely related elements into one file. Cutting down on HTTP requests also means getting rid of irrelevant images and content. These are the best ways to speed up the loading time of your WordPress page.

6. Involve WordPress Hosting

Every website hosting service indeed supports WordPress. Involving WordPress Hosting can be the best decision ever for your site. WordPress-specific hosting involves configuring the hosts’ servers. This way, the hosts will always run your WordPress-based site as fast as possible.

Please note that the web hosts know more about how WordPress works. Thus, apart from considering the web design and site performance, they also offer significant technical support. You can always be sure that any of your WordPress-related questions will never go unanswered.

Final Words

We have discussed effective web design tips that will improve your WordPress performance. You can always stay confident that your WordPress site will load at the right speed to avoid losing visitors. Fast-loading pages will improve the user experience on your WordPress, increase page views, and help with WordPress SEO.

Remember that; installing a WordPress caching plugin, using the right font, and reducing image sizes will add user value to your site. Choosing a lightweight WordPress theme, cutting down on HTTP requests, and involving WordPress Hosting are also critical factors for your site’s benefit.

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The post 6 Effective Web Design Tips to Improve Your WordPress Performance appeared first on Tricky Enough.

Web building will help your brand run successful digital marketing campaigns. Both businesses and nonprofit organizations now understand that good website design is no longer optional. It is the best tool you can use to build an online presence and maintain good relations with them.

Here’s how good web building will help boost your brand.

1. It Will Set a Good First Impression

Your website acts as a front office for your brand. According to Google, you only have 50 milliseconds to make a good first impression on your audience. Your marketing efforts will get a massive boost if you can impress your visitors before they lose their patience and click away from your site.

You need a compelling design and top-notch content to capture the reader’s attention. The organization on your site needs to be excellent, modern, and enticing to capture visitors. A professionally designed website will help you make a good first impression on your viewers.

In contrast, a poorly designed website will give you a bad start, making it difficult to convince potential donors and volunteers. Your first impression may stay with your audience for a long time, and thus, you need to make it a good one. Nonprofit organizations should allocate more resources to web design.

2. It can Help You Reach a Wider Audience

It is important for nonprofits to always think about lead generation. Attracting prospects to your organization and changing them into donors or volunteers depends on your website design. As a nonprofit, investing your resources into website development can help you reach a wider audience.

You need to use the right set of keywords in content creation. Also, include other key features such as metatags so that your business appears on the search engine result pages. Your nonprofit website may not appear on any searches if you do not invest enough time in keyword research.

Reaching a wider audience will increase your website’s conversion rates significantly. It will make it easy for you to run the organization as more donors and volunteers will contribute. You will scale and aim for a bigger cause after you’ve brought more people on board.

3. Increased Revenue

Nonprofit organizations need money to run more efficiently. As mentioned earlier, a good website design can help increase the number of leads that a nonprofit generates. The more the leads generated, the more revenues that go into supporting the organization’s cause.

You need to have the right content for your audience and ensure that there are calls to action to guide them on the next steps that they should follow. It’s also important to strategically place the calls to action and links to donation pages by including a button on every page.

Most of the revenue that nonprofits raise today comes from their websites. Investing in good website design can help you get the desired results financially. As a nonprofit, the best thing to do is view your website as part of your investments and allocate enough resources to its development.

More revenue to a nonprofit organization means that it can achieve its cause faster. Therefore, investing a little more in design can help you get there quickly. It would help if you take your time in checking out the design features missing on your nonprofit website and revamp it to your needs. That will help you take your brand to the next level.

4. Builds Trust in the Brand

The best way to attract people to your organization is by looking credible and trustworthy. Getting people to trust you online can be challenging, especially for nonprofits. There’s so much investment to make in your marketing campaigns to get people to trust you.

Your audience needs to find your site easy to follow. The content you post needs to provide value and answer your audience’s questions if they’re to trust you. The user experience that visitors get on your site can make them trust you, so you need to invest a lot in it.

Website design helps create a positive perception of your brand to visitors. That will mean more people in your audience will trust you and be ready to support your cause. Nonprofit organizations need to do more to make people trust you when you’re starting out compared to already established ones.

5. It Bolsters SEO Campaigns

Search engine optimization is a very important aspect for businesses and nonprofits. You’ll need to do more on SEO if you’re looking to increase your visibility on SERPs. For instance, you need to build your website with a focus on making it easy to navigate.

Your website design also needs to make the site mobile-friendly. Visitors accessing it on mobile devices should have a seamless experience accessing various aspects. Search engines such as Google rank mobile-friendly websites better than those that don’t display correctly on small screens.

Good SEO means that your site will appear higher on SERPs. That means more people will reach out to you and contribute to your cause as volunteers, sponsors, or donors. You also need to balance your SEO efforts both on and off the site to help you rank better online.

6. It Will Reduce Your Bounce Rate

A high bounce rate hurts your website and your nonprofit organization’s cause. A high bounce rate means people access your site but leave for some reason. The best way to know your bounce rate is to check analytics from your website to know the customer’s journey to where they stopped browsing.

A good website design can help increase customer dwell time on your site. The easier people can navigate your site, the more time they’re likely to check what you do. As a nonprofit, that will bring more revenues because you’ll have more time to convince your prospects.

The best thing to do here is to make sure that you post content that your target audience would enjoy. It would be best to use visuals to keep them glued on your site for long enough. You can also hire a web designer who understands nonprofit website builders to help revamp your site to the best standards.

7. It Helps Your Brand Stand Out

The online environment has become too competitive. Whether businesses or nonprofits, brands are investing in good website design to stand out from their competitors. Allocating enough resources to website design will help you attract the right donors and volunteers.

The number of nonprofits looking for sponsors online has increased significantly. That has made it difficult for brands that don’t have attractive websites to make the cut. Standing out from the competition should be one of your main targets if you’re running a nonprofit.

You can check out how other nonprofits have designed their websites. Go ahead and think about something new that you can add to your site to attract prospects. Doing something different from the rest can make sponsors and donors take you more seriously and want to work with you.

8. It Enhances Brand Consistency

Consistency is key in the online environment for businesses that have a presence on the internet. You must invest in good website design so that you remain consistent. Things like brand colours, logos, etc., need to appear on every page of your website for you to look consistent.

It would be best if you are also consistent with the content you post on your site. Ensure that readers can find value in every piece of content you post. You also need to post content regularly to avoid losing touch with potential visitors to your website.

A consistent brand can keep its customers’ interest in what it does. Visitors will hold you in high regard if you can show consistency in your cause. Show them that they will benefit from supporting you.

Final Thoughts

Nonprofit organizations need good website designs for several reasons. It can help increase conversions, and revenues, improve online visibility, and make your organization stand out. If you’re looking to take your organization to the next level, the best thing for you is to invest in top-notch design.

We’ve listed some of the ways that web design will help you build your nonprofit. Getting sponsors online is becoming challenging every day, and your organization needs to do things differently. As a manager, your job is to allocate more money to good website design to attract the right leads.

Nonprofit website designers need to avoid various design mistakes that can hurt their organizations. But then, it is not every nonprofit that gets its website design right on the first try. Sometimes you need to do just more to get the results that you desire as a website designer for a nonprofit.

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The post Why Web Building Can Take Your Brand to the Next Level? appeared first on Tricky Enough.

Are you tired of using an already existing font or are you thinking of customizing a font because you haven’t found the right look for a new project? A font can be a representation of your brand; your audience or potential clients will be able to recognize that the visual has been designed by you.

What are the Benefits of Creating a Customized Font?

Even though creating your own fonts can be time-consuming, expensive, and call for some technical expertise, you can explore different paid or free software tools that will take these into consideration. You’ll want to be clear on the intended use of the font, and how much time and financial investment you want to put into its development.

If it’s just for fun or casual use, you can stick to free basic fonts. Let’s say you want to produce a font for a particular project, you may want to take some time to learn the tools and the techniques. If you’re planning to create a font that is expected to be used by others, we would recommend you invest more time in the development process and more money on highly sophisticated software.

How To Create Your Very Own Font?

If you’re interested in creating a customized font, you’ll need to address a few basic considerations:

Step 1

Just as with any other design project, write out an outline. This is an important first step. Questions to keep in mind before drawing up your creative design summary:

1. Is this font to be used for a distinct project or will it have a broad spectrum of usage?
2. What will be the size and shape of the font?
3. What should your basic font type be?
4. Are there any fonts you find particularly appealing?

Step 2

Many experts recommend that you design the font on a piece of paper. Paper is an easy, quick, and time-saving method for drafting a design summary.

Step 3

Choose a tool that will be the right fit for you and download it. Whether you’re creating for your own use or for a potential client, there are a number of free and paid applications available. Below we have featured multiple tools that will suit your specific needs.

Step 4

After penning down your design and installing the software, you can start creating your font. Depending upon the software, you’ll either upload images of the paper drawing or directly start drawing.

Each software will have its own learning curve and offer variations in characters, shapes, and editing methods. This part is the most time-consuming task, but you’ll get the hang of things and that will speed up the process. 

Step 5

The final leg in creating a custom font is to use them as you desired. You can always upload your font on your own WordPress and there are several ways available to upload it. The use of a plugin is the simplest way to upload.

Instead of adding multiple plugins that can slow down your website, you can use your own CSS code. There are other media such as posters and signs for which you can upload your font to create the desired work.

Basic and Advanced Tools 

Choose the tool that is the best fit for you even if it’s for individual use or for a client. We’ve listed below both free and paid tools that will help you to kick-start this process.

Calligraphr 

This is an impressive tool that enables you to create a font based on your handwriting. All you gotta do to have your own font is print out a template and write out a sample of your handwriting with a black pen. Next, take a picture and upload it on the website where it will automatically generate the font.

Fonts created on Calligrapher can be used on your computer. Though it’s completely free, you can’t work on multiple fronts simultaneously and there is a limit on the number of characters a font can carry. Obviously, there is a paid version available without any limitations.

FontStruct 

A free browser-based tool that allows you to build your own typography and lets you download it at any point. You can get your hands on existing fonts that were uploaded by others by browsing and downloading them.

This tool will help you to create an authentic and accurate design for every pixel. The boxes, circles, and squares will be of extreme use in creating a customized font. Get motivation from other creations in the gallery and download them if you find that they match your taste. You are required to create a FrontStruct account, but it’s absolutely free and easy to get started.

Fonty 

This is also another handwriting-based font maker but for an Android app. Here you would be writing on a screen which is a tad bit harder when compared to writing on a piece of paper. You can always use a tablet to create a custom font. 

You can make fonts easily available in other apps by downloading the Fonty keyboard within this application. The other essential feature it offers is the automatic saving of your work, it supports all sorts of characters, lets you add shapes, and allows you to perfectly customize a font using the eraser tool.

Fontlab 

This font builder is free for a 30-day trial period, after which you’re required to pay to keep using this tool. This is available in Mac and Windows and comes with a variety of features that you couldn’t find on other free font makers. It can be treated like a Photoshop tool but its primary purpose is creating customized fonts for super-specific editing purposes.

Moreover, a tool called FontAduit can inspect or review inconsistencies and odd curves in your drawing process. Keep in mind that the tool can be good for precise editing and it should be your last resort when looking for font makers.

Metaflop 

Yet again another browser-based font builder. It is a user-friendly tool with highly customizable content and a list of variables you can tweak to alter the font into precisely what you want. You will also get to see how the font will appear if it’s in lowercase, uppercase, and in full sentences.

This will give you a perspective on how real the font will look while using it. Dive right into the tool and start creating wonderful fonts, which you can later download by choosing either the open-type font or Webfont.

Start Designing

We hope that the above list of tools and tips for customizing a font will offer you some valuable know-how on the approach that works best for you. If you want to stand out from the crowd, we recommend that you get started creating your very own customized font.

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The post How to Design Your Own Font? appeared first on Tricky Enough.

Our team was assigned the responsibility to fix it. We were informed that the Automation tests had missed catching several defects, eventually reaching the customer – which obviously turned out expensive to the client.

As we started analyzing that framework, we were actually pleasantly impressed with its overall architecture and design. We also observed how well it covered the business rules to be tested. They had a traceability matrix planned and executed with regards to the business requirements coverage. When we initially ran the tests on our Windows 10 desktop, using the Chrome browser, all went fine. There were no errors. So, what had gone wrong then, any guesses?

Let me share with you the defects that were reported, and this should help you get a gist of what had gone wrong. Note that we never saw the below-mentioned issues when we tested it on the Windows 10 Desktop, using the Chrome browser–

1. A) Several iPhone users reported that the Shopping Cart was not functioning. The counter in the cart failed to reflect the correct count as items got added and deleted.
2. B) Some Linux OS users who used the Mozilla Firefox browser reported that the Webui layout was looking misplaced.

Yes, as you may have noticed, these defects had been caught by the user because the tests (before the application was deployed for users) were run only on Windows/Chrome combination, and like I mentioned there were no such issues in this platform combination. The automation tests were designed with no cross-platform/OS/browser support.

With this perspective in mind, we as an automation team set off to improve the automation framework to consider the real-world use-cases. We kept in mind that the web application ought to be compatible with all types of mobile phones, tablets, iPads (which come in several screen sizes and platforms) as well. Hence, we had to build the framework such that it should be possible to test the real-world scenarios on all the possible combinations of the platforms. We then treaded towards enhancing the test automation to provide Cross-Platform/OS/Browser/Mobile technology support. This endeavor was an insightful journey indeed. Glad to share the tips that helped us during this journey!

Tip 1 – Research the market for automation tools that support cross-platform testing. Perform lots of brainstorming as a team! Involve the stakeholders.

We together researched several automation tools that support cross-platform/operating system/browser/device testing. In the process, we discovered many tools like TestProject, MicroFocus, TestingBot, etc. We even found some tools that offered to let us try the tool for free and some were available with trial options. This was a boon for us as it allowed us to experiment to check the several features.

Several projects forget to consider mobile platform support. These days a lot of the web UI applications are being accessed using mobiles more than ever before. The tools that we found that matched our requirement had the capability that we could plug the mobile/tablets to our desktops and automate tests on our desktops.

We needed to be sure that the tool supports the maximum number of OS/Platform/Browsers/Mobile technologies. We checked to see which latest versions of platforms it supported. Most necessarily, we checked that in the future, if there are new versions of the platform/browser, would it pick up supporting the latest version. As a shortlisting strategy, we checked if the automation tool helps to quickly incorporate the latest version of the platform/OS/browser as soon as it gets launched. Hence, do not forget to check for immediate version support.

Tip 2 – What about optimum coverage?

Encapsulating all the combinations of platforms, browsers, etc. would result in lots of tests that cannot be run in a limited time. Hence we ventured out to search for tools that support combinatorial test design / pairwise testing. We planned to make this as an input to our Automation tool. This resulted in an optimized input data set of platform choice to the Automation tool. Having such CTD tools as an add-on/extension will help the project in the long run.

Tip 3 – Check if the automation tool has a self-healing AI feature. Self-maintaining tests to the rescue!

Heard about self-healing AI? Automation tools that have this magical feature result in tests that do not require manual maintenance.  The self-healing AI capability helps the tool fix errors on its and proceeds testing. This is particularly useful in scenarios of cross-platform support. Some tools that support self-healing AI are- TestProject, Parasoft, etc.

Tip 4- Beautiful Test Analytics support!

There will be several combinations of tests being considered. Eventually, it would be ideal if the tool helps you explore in-depth insights into your tests across multiple platforms and environments. This will help the team analyze failures. It will also help the team identify testing trends by showing your product’s trends across various platforms, browsers, and devices. We found TestProject to have reports that helped us in this regard.

Tip 5 – Keeping the communication running between the web application development team, business analysts, and the web automation team.

Keep the communication running between the team members. Also, you could involve the Business analysts in the whole process to understand more about the prioritization of platforms while you design the tests. Make use of the analytics report feature to share info with the other teams.

In Conclusion

With these quick, handy tips in hand, I am sure your web UI automation project will be a success. Even if the client doesn’t specifically mention requiring cross-platform support, it is imperative that the automation team starts up the discussion and provides information on why it is vital for the client’s success, because of the diverse platforms that the Web applications can be accessed from. Strategize well in this regard, and then start your automation journey!

Suggested:

The Key Steps to Omnichannel Marketing Successes Featuring Automation

The post How Vital is Cross-Platform Testing? How Do You Choose an Automation Tool that Supports It? appeared first on Tricky Enough.

But for most businesses, keeping up with regular posting is always a challenge. It’s for this reason that most companies employ social media managers to operate their accounts. Through outsourcing, a business in the U.K. can hire a social media manager from Asia to oversee its digital marketing strategies. 

In this process, the question about online security always arises. It’s common to experience account blocks if your social media platforms operate from different locations. Social media managers are familiar with the alert for “Suspicious Login Attempt” the first time they log in from a different area.

But thanks to proxy servers, it’s now possible to manage accounts without the fear of getting blocked. Proxies enable social media managers to hide behind a different IP address.

Better still is how your proxy providers can offer IP addresses based on location. If you have various people connecting from different places, then the proxy server can indicate your responses as coming from one geographical area.

How Proxies Work for Social Media Management?

Successful businesses are consistent in their responses. Their responses on social media platforms are fast, with no downtimes. They always play it safe with their choice of social media management tools. Great businesses have a go-between for their requests. They use proxy servers to mask all their online tracks.

What a proxy server does is it hides the social media managers’ IP address with its own. Every time the manager operates your account, only the proxy servers’ IP address is displayed on the receiver’s end. In this way, no one can trace the sender’s location.

There are various proxies that social media managers can use. For example, the sneaker proxies are ideal for businesses that do online shopping. These proxies deliver unique IP addresses for each purchase so you can access unlimited products. This is especially important if you want to access products with purchasing limits.

Another good example is social media proxies. Though most social media proxies work for one channel at a time, some providers allow for the integrating of two platforms. A point to note in this is that your provider will determine how much help you get from social media proxies.

The Relevance of Proxies for Social Media Management

Social media management is all about building connections. Proxies have made it possible for social media managers to grow their following without the fear of IPs getting blocked. Proxies hold great relevance in a business, and here’s how:

It’s Easier to Access Information

Online research has never been as easy as it is with proxies. Proxies are great intermediaries that help you access a competitor’s site. If you are thinking of using social media scrapers, proxies will help hide your identity.

Social media scrapers are relevant if you want to extract massive data. You can check the comments, clicks, or blogs your competitors share. You can easily get information about their social media marketing strategies and what makes them successful. 

Ability to Operate from Different Locations

In most instances, social media managers operate more than one account. If you have high traffic, then you may need different managers for each platform. Most managers will work remotely, and most likely from different locations.

For managers to access your accounts without looking suspicious, they need a proxy server. The proxy server will use its IP address, making it seem like one person is operating the computer. This way, social networks cannot flag your accounts as spam.

Allows for the Speedy Delivery of Requests

Proxies are excellent at improving internet speeds. And, caching site information for subsequent searches is one of their primary functions. Each time a social media manager places a similar search request, the proxy will not need to conduct an internet search again.

The proxies will go through their files and check if they have a similar version of the request. If they do, they’ll fetch the response and send the information to you.

In social media management, caching plays a major role in how much information you can send and receive. Web caching reduces your bandwidth, thus increasing internet speeds. In this way, you have a better chance of reaching a greater audience as well as improving their experience on your site.

Keep Your Information Private

Online privacy is a major contributor to business success. A breach in your privacy could result in the loss of data necessary for your business’s growth.

Think of instances where your IP address is available on a competitor’s website. They’ll mark and report your account for suspicious activities. Your information could also be used by third-parties that could expose your business to cyberattacks. 

To keep your information safe:

• Use a private proxy server.
• Ensure that your social media managers play their part in your online security.
• Make sure that all shared information goes through the proxy server.

Ability to Access Restricted Content

Most social media managers operate remotely. You’ll find a manager in England helping a client in France operate their social accounts. In some instances, the client’s requests may not be accessible from the manager’s location.

But thanks to proxies, you can now bypass geographical restrictions. Proxies help social media managers access restricted information that’s helpful to your business. With proxies, social media managers can go through almost all sites without restrictions.

What to Look for When Choosing a Proxy Server?

24/7 Support System

We all have different work schedules. And because of that, everyone requires a support system that operates 24 hours, seven days a week. Not everyone is tech-savvy, and people will need help at different times of the day.

To ensure work continuity, have a provider that’s available around the clock. Pick one that’s highly experienced in this field. Check for reviews and identify a provider with a reputation for offering stellar services.

Great Security

All proxies are not the same. While some are built for utmost security, others only hide your IP address. As a business, consider the benefits and challenges of a proxy that best suits your needs.

Ensure that the proxy you use does not expose sensitive information to third-parties. If you are to choose between the paid and free versions, always go for the paid. Paid versions guarantee better security for your social media activities.

Reliable Internet Speeds

Proxies are known for improving internet speeds. But unfortunately, not all proxies load faster. Since successful social media management depends on how much information you send and receive, pick a proxy with reliable speeds.

It’s important to research for proxies with short downtimes. Check for providers that guarantee better web caching opportunities that improve internet speeds.

Number of Proxies on Offer

Your preferences may change with time. While a SOCKS5 proxy may be what you need at the moment, you may find a greater need for a rotating proxy in the next. To make sure you don’t keep switching between providers, pick a company with many options. Pick a provider that allows you to make changes when the need arises.

Final Thoughts

Proxies play an essential role in avoiding account blocks. Proxies are what social media managers use to hide their real identity. By using proxies, the managers can operate on multiple accounts from different locations. Proxies are what businesses need to ensure there are no interruptions in company operations.

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