Shopcred launches in Australia as the online shopping rewards market heats up

June 7, 2018 by admin 1 Comment

A new player Shopcred , has entered the Australian cashback market only a month after the launch of Asian behemoth Shopback.

Positioning itself as a shopping community, Shopcred is helping bargain hunters and stores connect through the use of new technology that enables their community to earn rewards in a range of innovative ways.

These new technologies include rewards for sharing and posting deals, getting upvoted deals, along with cashback, promo codes and deals for over 800 online stores including Australia’s favourite retailers like Catch, Uniqlo, Cotton On, Virgin Australia, Menulog, ASOS and Bonds.

With these innovative ways to earn rewards, Shopcred are hoping to differentiate themselves from local competitors Pricepal, Shopback and Cashrewards who have recently raised funding Shopback made news last year when they raised $32 million in a funding round including backing
from Blue Sky Alternative Investments.

Australian based competitor Cashrewards also just completed an external funding round that yielded a $5.25 million investment from Partners For Growth.

Shopcred have seen the rise of influencers and are working with Aussie retailers to reach the ever-growing influencer audience. In return, influencers and customers can receive cashback for their purchases and rewards for their interactions, such as sharing with their followers on Facebook or posting found deals on the Shopcred website.

“Our unique technologies help retailers reach new influencer audiences and encourage the community to share and engage with retailer brands and products” explained Glenn Harvey, one of two co-founder of Shopcred.

Across Australia, loyalty program sign-ups have increased significantly as retailers see the ongoing benefits of rewarding customers for their loyalty. Deal and cashback sites like Shopcred reward customers with discounts and cashback to as much as 50% off. Particular retailers, such as telco and insurance providers, can offer one-off cashback bonuses of as much as $50 for signing up on long-term plans.

With Australians spending $21.3 billion yearly online and the arrival of same day postage, Aussie’s are heading online for the best bargains and rejecting physical stores of the past. Consumers are realising they can get a better deal with the use of promo codes and now cashback that are released regularly by the online retailers.

Throughout the past 5 years, deal sites like Ozbargain have recorded a significant increase in members, as have promo code websites like RetailMeNot and overseas cashback sites like Ebates.

Australia isn’t the only place that has taken a liking to cashback deals. Recently, Samsung announced that their mobile wallet, Samsung Pay, will allow users to get cashback when they regularly spending with their wallet. They’ve partnered up with stores including eBay and Walmart where users can earn about 5% cash back when paying with the wallet. This cashback can then be can be used the next time they pay with their Samsung Pay wallet.

Another big player, Citi, are giving their customers 2 percent cash back on all purchases, 1 percent when you shop and 1 percent when you pay your bill. Customers won’t be restricted as they are with other reward programs where users need to make purchases at affiliated retailers.

With online spending increasing by 18.6% since 2016, the future looks bright for Shopcred. “Over the next few months, we’ll be onboarding many more retailers that impact the everyday spending of Australians” an excited Harvey told Digital Grog.

“We’re working hard on creating unique ways to reward our members. This and gaining a better understanding of their shopping preferences will be where our next investment will be”

Mobile users are also in their crosshairs with the imminent release of a rewards app. “The rewards app will make for a smooth deal finding and earning cashback experience for our mobile users. In Australia, it’s definitely an emerging space that is underutilised in the deal and rewards community.”

Cashback through Shopcred can be obtained at over 700 stores, here’s some of the top Aussie stores we’ve picked:

ASOS
Cheap and high end fashion, ASOS stock over 70,000 branded products from around the world. Next day delivery is available on a huge range of products.

Menulog
Menulog offer a huge variety of food across Australia at over 8000 restaurants. Menulog also offer a loyalty program and exclusive discounts to get repeat customers.

Catch
Catch pretty much sell everything! They currently have over 13,000 branded products from a huge range of categories including clothing, electronics, books, beauty products and even mobile plans.

Uniqlo
Japanese fashion retailer UNIQLO provide hundreds of basics in a range of colours. Their stock includes tees, jackets, hoodies, tops, jeans and pants.

Booktopia
Booktopia sell a huge range of books, ebooks, magazine and stationery items. With a warehouse in Sydney, holding more than 500,000 books, Booktopia are able to ship within 48 hours to Metro areas.

Is Google Home Smart Device Worth the Money

June 6, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

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I got Google home for myself, thinking I would be the only person using Google home (GH) in my household. How wrong was i?

Post updated 11th October 2018 – Google announced the Google Home Hub, the first smart display hardware made by Google.

Google’s Home Hub doesn’t run Android Things—it’s actually built on Google’s Cast platform. The device is tiny, with only a 7-inch screen that isn’t much bigger than the body of a smartphone. Google says it excluded a video camera because it wants users to feel “comfortable” with the Home Hub, but the absence of a camera will also save on the bill of materials.

Google Home was released in the United States on November 4, 2016. I got it two weeks earlier to its Australia launch, thanks to family on a US trip.

Google went on sale in Australia on Thursday July 20 for AU$199 in The Google Store, JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, Officeworks, The Good Guys, Telstra, Optus and Qantas Store.

Comparison of Smart – Voice Activated Devices Google Home and Echo

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My partner now uses Google Home, my daughter loves GH and funnily also thinks there is an actual person hiding in there. My dog thinks Google home is evil, he can’t stop barking at it at times, when it does its thing. But yes this smart home gadget indeed has managed to get everyone in the house and also visitors talking to him.

My little one calls the speaker MR .Google and thinks there is a person in there answering all her questions. Dare I swear at Google out of frustration and she will come to the rescue.

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How do you speak to Google Home?

Just say – OKAY GOOGLE or HEY GOOGLE – and ask it a Question.

The other day, I had my brother in law visit. He looked at Google gave it a stiff upper lip look and suspicious eye and said, so this is supposed to be the new smart gadget aye. He decided to challenge Google home to see if it is really as smart as it says it is. He threw his best challenge question at the smart device. Google home got asked what the full form of Qantas is.

I will be honest, I didn’t know that one and I wasn’t very confident of my smart Google also being able to retrieve an answer, specially also since I had it for just two weeks now and didn’t ask it any difficult questions yet.

We were all pleasantly surprised, Google managed to give the correct answer

The Qantas name comes from “QANTAS“, an acronym for its original name, “Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services”, and it is nicknamed “The Flying Kangaroo”.

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Using your Google Home for Childrens Education

Technology will always advance and the sooner you adopt it the better for the future of your kids. Smart devices can do a lot for your kids’ education and knowledge, and Google home excels in doing this as well.

I have used this as speech therapy device to make my little one speak more clearly and slowly. I have used it to teach her numbers, maths and science.

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Numbers and maths for kids

Ask google –
Can you count from 1 to 10 / 10 to 20 to 50 and so on and you get them saying numbers
it will count from 1 to 10 and more.

Good if you have kids, who would like to learn the numbers or are a bit slow in this.

Maths teacher
it can do maths. Try it. Tell your kids. Get rid of the calculator!. It can do addition, multiplication and more. Get rid of that maths teacher.

Ask Google- Can you say A to Zee

This is a good command to teach your kids ABCD.

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Madlibs/ Riddles/ Trivia

Just get your kids to say to Google – Hey Google Im bored ( I’m sure they will readily say that)

This is a fun game. It will play a game with you and if you choose madlibs. It will ask you adjective words.. etc.. Good for kids learning. But better keep a watch on this teacher as I am not 100% confident of th responses for this. Though spin the wheel is fun.

It will also give you options to spin a wheel or tell a riddle or joke.( they keep improving on this one, which means it’s in high demand)

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Rhymes for kids

It knows to do twinkle twinkle little star, you can test out some other rhymes too and keep the little ones entertained.

Spelling bee
Want your kid to get good at spelling bee. Get Google to do the hard work for ya. Ask Google spellings for words.

Learning languages – Japanese- Mandarin and konichiwa

Learning languages can also be fun with Google. You can teach your children to say hello in Japanese, mandarin, Indian, Spanish and many other languages thanks to Google home

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Want some Google humour?

Just ask – Hey google sing a song!

This one’s a good one if you have nothing better to do, just tell Google this and keep telling the same thing (Hey google sing a song!). You will realise Google certainly has patience and some humour.

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Cooking timer

Just tell Google to set timer for 15 minutes, 30 minutes or a time and it will remind you with an alarm to take the food of the gas or the pizza out of the oven. Quite handy, if your Google home is placed near to the kitchen lounge.

Set timer
You, can use the same feature as above but as a reminder for anything

Set alarm
All you need is to tell Google wake me up at 6am and it works like an morning alarm. Now you can get rid of your alarm clock

How is my day looking
This command makes use of your settings on google assistant. Based on what you have set up on your account, it can read up your appointments, reminders, read the weather for the day and much more. You can also set which website you want your news from.

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My adventures with Mr google home

I still remember the first time I got Google home and tried getting the weather. My partner immediately told me – Haha Google H is Americano. He’s giving 68 Fahrenheit weather for today. We live in Australia not USA. So I thought I will tell try Mr Google himself to fix it and so i told Google to give me weather in Celsius and to my surprise it actually worked.

It confirmed that weather was updates to Celsius settings. I did not believe it being new to all this. So checked weather again and hot diggity damn – Indeed it was updated, without pressing any buttons.

The Google home device is pretty good at listening because that’s the core of what this device does. It listens to your question or suggestion and tries to answer it right.

This device got omni-directional mic’s fitted into it, so you can speak from anywhere within its range and it will hear you and respond. It also works well as speaker.

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Google Home as Audio Speakers
You can use your home device to play music too. I managed to play music via my sound cloud app on my smartphone. It’s got good bass in those speakers.

Apparently It also works with Google music and spotify

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Google and Netflix Story

Netflix is quite popular nowdays in aussies homes. Cheap and better than foxtel and guess what – it ties in nicely with your google home.

Just tell google to play the next episode of “House of Cards” or “Narcos” and it will start it for you. You will need to link your netflix account to google assistant to get this happening

So today, i decided to link my netflix to google as they told me I could do it. I linked netflix and told google to play House of cards on the tv.

It didn’t do it!

Two hours later, I had to play doc mcstuffins for my little one and netflix told me I cant as there was somebody else using my netflix account. I found out that House of cards had been streaming in the background because I had told it to. So this happended via chromecast and netflix and i didn’t even know.

Yes that command i gave to start Netflix actually worked but it was streaming on chrome cast, so i forgot to switch source to chromecast to check. Now, I’m two episodes behind on house of cards.

The problem is they made all these gadgets smart, but not smart enough. For eg. Google home started streaming netflix house of cards episode, but it did it via chromecast and not directly via netflix and so it was not able to change the TV source button on my TV, when it started streaming and so it was playing the episode in the background via my Samsung smart TV.

Solution- Change you TV source to Netflix on your TV, then tell home to start next episode of “House of cards”

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Getting your local Bunning’s – Store/Bank – open/shut times

I had to go to Bunning’s recently to get some paint for a painting walls job, so i asked google – until what time Bunning’s Morley is open – it did say 7pm (was pretty good, as i didn’t have to search on my phone or desktop). In fact if i wanted i could also ask it for the store number if i wanted to call them on my mobile.

Which I actually made use of later in the day. I needed to know if Bunning’s lets dog into their stores – turns out they do. If the dog is on the trolley and on leash – no muzzle is needed, but if you are walking the dog in store then a muzzle and leash is needed.

I have a cute little Maltese poodle named chase (yes he has his own Facebook page) that was a good fit for the top tray on the Bunning’s trolley, so off we went taking him for a Bunning’s adventure.

You can use this feature to get restaurant, offices, local deli etc open close times

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Smart Lights & Devices

You can just tell google to dim your lights and it will dim your lights or turn it off if you have smart lights in your house. Some of the smart lights that work with GH are below.

Phillips Hue Lights
Nano Leaf Lights
Belkin Wemo APP
Tp Link Kasa

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TV speaks to GH

Today I was watching TV and suddenly Google mumbled something. It almost sounded like an apologetic mumble.

As no one around spoke to Google, I would assume it would have to be the TV speaking to my Google home. Yeh my smart TV speaks to google home too and that has been happening a lot more with the new Google home ads triggering off my Google home which is sitting right next to the tv.

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GHome Makes – 911 Call to Police

Did you read the news of the guy who got caught by police threatening his girlfriend? Our very own gangsta G-home picked up on a few words and called 911. Police listened in and decided to act.

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Let us know about your G home Experience

Do you own a Google home, have you any interesting things to add about your google home experience, just leave me a comment below, I would be glad to hear about it.

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Some Helpful Links for google home

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Breaking new payment technology PayID launches in Australia

April 28, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

Want to pay a friend or family member some money you owe them. Pay Id is the new technology that is making this process easy. You can use this instant payment transfer technology on your phone , computer or ipad.

All you need now to make a payment to anybody is their phone number or email.

Technology has been improving in leaps and bounds, with major banks now allowing their customers to use their smartphones to withdraw money from ATM without bank cards (called cardless cash with commonwealth bank). Westpac bank has their own version of cardless cash as well

Pay ID takes this one step further allowing you to pay anyone instantly.

How does PAY ID work?

You need to register your email or phone number with Payid in your bank account. I have a bank account with commonwealth bank, so I have trialled this feature with their new pay id service and attached some snapshots below of how it works with commonwealth bank.

[Mind you no new technology is scam free and i will tell you a little story below, to make sure you stay aware of scammers too. Keep reading 🙂 ]

How to register

To create a PayID you’ll need an eligible CommBank account, an Australian mobile phone number³ and the latest version of the CommBank app.

How it works

Use PayID to receive money

To receive payments you’ll need to register your mobile number as a PayID using the latest version of CommBank app. It only takes a couple of minutes.

Friends and family will then be able to pay you through their own bank’s mobile or internet banking using your PayID.

Use PayID to send money

To send payments to someone else, they just need to provide you with their PayID.

This may be their mobile number however other PayID types may include email, ABN, ACN and landline phone number, depending on their bank.

Once you have registered your mobile phone number with pay id, you just need to click pay id link in your bank account on your smartphone or computer and click on pay someone.

It will give you the option of pay via email or phone. Tap or click one of them. If you click on use mobile number – Next screen will allow you to choose a contact number from your phone contacts.

Just choose the persons mobile number and set $$ amount and click pay.

Your done – you have just transferred money to the other party

You will get an sms acknowledgement that you have sent money to that person and the person receiving money will also get an sms telling them they have received money and how they can claim it.

[ You can only link one PayID to one account at one financial institution. For example, if you have two personal everyday bank accounts, you would need two unique PayIDs – one linked to each account.]

Want to know more about pay id ?

Demo by beyond bank

Here is what payid.com.au has to say about their new payment innovation

PayID is a simple new service that makes sending and receiving money from your bank account a little bit easier. You create your PayID by choosing something easy

PAy ID is also linked to the NPP ( the New Payments Platform ) , which has the ability to send each other money in “real time. BSB and account numbers will still exist, but individuals and businesses can create other identifiers, called “PayID“.

Why use PayID?

Transfer money to friends and family using their PayID as quickly and easily as you transfer money between your CommBank accounts.

Fast: Near real-time¹ payments across participating banks
Easy: No more scrambling for your BSB and account number to get paid
Mobile: Available through the latest version of the CommBank app
Secure: Backed by our 100% security guarantee²
Simple registration: A few clicks and you’re ready

First time payments to a new payee may be held for up to 24 hours as a security measure.

What this means With NPP?

The NPP platform will remove the delays caused by weekends and public holidays and mean you can make transfers after business hours.

Around 60 banks, credit unions and building societies will begin rolling out services to their customers from today, with the number of financial institutions and accounts linked to the NPP progressively increasing over the coming months.

The Reserve Bank developed new infrastructure, the RITS Fast Settlement Service, to enable the settlement of NPP transactions between financial institutions in real time on a 24/7 basis across exchange settlement accounts at the Reserve Bank. The Reserve Bank is also an NPP participant with newly developed services utilising the NPP for its government customers.

Other payment platforms for online purchase and payments :

Alipay, which has an estimated 520 million active users, now supports payments in 27 currencies across 30 countries.

Android Pay has also been rapidly increasing in popularity.

Fraud risk with new PAY ID technology

With any new technology there comes the risk of new frauds and scams happening too. With Payid there will be concerns as payments happen in real time.The big concern will be detecting fraudulent activity and if this can be prevented as well in real time. This will surely have to be looked into and managed well by the banks’ risk management area.

Payments on the New Payments Platform may be faster and easier to make, but will they be safer? Time will tell.

Choosing the best eCommerce platform for your online store

April 16, 2018 by admin 11 Comments

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Create Ecommerce Store (no credit card required) – Start a 14 Day Free Trial Now‎

Many people still think that building an online shop involves a lot of technical wizardry and skills that would be required when it is exactly the opposite today. Big software vendors ( Shopify and big commerce) have made it so easy that anyone can just sign up and build an online store within an hour or less and start selling.

“Big commerce” is an Australia, Sydney-based software start-up company that provides end to end services to start your eCommerce online store. It started up as a startup not too long ago and is now a well-established portal for building online store-front websites. The Shopify solution caters to the beginner entrepreneur as well as the established million dollars a day shops.

Bigcommerce powers over 95,000 online shops and have processed over $5 billion in transactions and that is no easy task. Its even got its top competitors like “Shopify” “Volusion” “3Dcart” worried. They have a good collection of store design add-ons and also provide website store examples to give you an idea of how your store can look. But Shopify is fast catching up with its ease of use and perfectly priced plans.

Bigcommerce was founded by BRW Young Rich Listers Eddie Machaalani and Mitchell Harper. Their customer’s list boasts some top companies like Samsung, Marvel, Cetaphil and Ubisoft yet they have affordable plans for smaller eCommerce stores. Below is our review on BC focusing on what’s important to you.

Building an online business store is no easy task and trust me I have gone through this well and truly a few times to know how hard it can be. There is more involved in starting an e-commerce store than it is for just starting a blog or website, however software companies like Big Commerce and Shopify have made this task much easier with their custom software and help given in the form of written guides and video guides to set everything up.

There are plenty of reviews online, but I have my own unique viewpoints of why Bigcommerce and Shopify is an e-commerce store builder that you should consider trying out if you are really serious about creating your own online store.

Right now with both of them upping their game – if its ease of use and an all in one solution your after – I would recommend Shopify if your starting small and intend to grow big, but if you need a big solution for a big online shop then its “big” commerce. If your just looking to start a website as a blog or for your small business then these hosts are not for you as they are online shop specific, you can check out my other 2019 webhosts listing over here for starting a blog/website.

List of top 5 E-commerce platforms

Here is a list of Ecommerce providers below(updated for 2018)

1. BigCommerce – www.bigcommerce.com

2. Shopify – www.shopify.com ( Recommended)

3. 3Dcart – www.3dcart.com

4. Volusion – www.volusion.com

5. Magento- http://magento.com

I’ve added one more platform Magento – which is self-hosted on the list

Take a look at these online store examples here and you can see what Bigcommerce or Shopify can do for you.

Compare Shopify Vs Bigcommerce features below

Cheap E-commerce Solution: Woo Commerce + WordPress Blog

Now before we go any further, I need to say that if you really are on a low budget and just want to test things out then this other option here might suit you. It includes setting up a wordpress blog and using a free payment and online shop plugin called woo commerce. This method is a bit more involved than using Shopify which is custom based shop software that works out of the box.

With this method – you can get a wordpress blog for ($3.95 a month) and add a woo commerce plugin (free) to get started quickly with your e-commerce shop /website/or blog.

This set up will allow you to run a blog store front on wordpress and sell products and accept payments via paypal through the woo-commerce plugin. You might want a spend a bit of extra money ($20 to $60) though to get a decent storefront wordpress design ( I recommend elegant themes for his ) to help attract traffic and build trust with a good-looking storefront design for your store.

What is this WooCommerce Plugin ?

WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that lets you turn your WordPress site into a full-featured online store. It gives you an easy way to handle inventory, payments, shipping, and more.

It gives you reports on customers and products and it works with practically any theme and doesn’t get in the way of your website. It can be easily integrated into an existing site as well.

The difference between this above cheap method and a proper eCommerce platform are many.

In an e-commerce platform, you will be able to manage everything – all in one place like store management, inventory management, shopping cart systems, social networking, blogging, SEO, security, ease of use and expandability. Costs play a big role in this decision. – but with wordpress and woo commerce – the connection between listing and payments are not as seamless and needs some tech knowledge or willingness to test and learn.

The good thing however with woo commerce is that Paypal tells you whenever you receive a payment with this method implemented so you can follow up with the delivery of product etc once you receive notification via woocommerce, so it’s not that hard after all.

Feel free to choose whichever platform you are comfortable with but let’s get on with the custom-made online shop builders – big commerce platform & Shopify

Pros and Cons of Using Bigcommerce for your online store

Let’s start with the features that big commerce offers because every person needs to know what they are getting when they sign up for an online store solution.

Features:

Pros

Integrated Education – As I said earlier their big university video tutorials are a great help on setting things up and teaching you all about this stuff

All in one platform – They have integrated pretty much everything together, so if you want reviews, an easy way to add & delete products, inventory management, integrated payments, analytics, order management, coupon code creation, discount functionality, easy shipping integration, etc., It’s all in one place. They have other marketing buttons like sell on Facebook, Google trusted sites which you can integrate into their dashboard.

In- Built Marketing Features – once you have logged into their admin panel and click on the marketing tab, you will find features like email marketing (keeping in touch with customers and promoting products)

Speed & Security for your store – You don’t need to worry about your store being online all the time ( they got a 99.95 % Uptime guarantee), as they ensure that your store is speedy to load and also secure from online threats.

Cons:

Design – While Big commerce can still work out of the box, you would probably need to get a designer to make it look top end. Their design functionality is basic but good enough to get started.T heir platform is easy enough for an outside designer to make you a custom good design for your shop with their platform.

Pricing plans for Big commerce

The 2nd most important thing you need to know is pricing for the ecommerce plans they have. You might argue, that in fact this is the most important point and I would still agree.

BIGCOMMERCE PRICING

Initially, Bigcommerce offered quite a few different pricing plans with different options, but they have refined it over the years and whittled it down to just three plans:

- Bigcommerce Standard: $29.95 per month (Get it now)
- Bigcommerce Plus: $79.95 per month
- Bigcommerce Enterprise: pricing varies, depending on your business requirements

The ‘standard’ and ‘plus’ plans are aimed at individuals and small businesses. The more advanced Enterprise plan is geared more towards large businesses and corporates (users with very high bandwidth & advanced functionality requirements).

About the Popular standard plan:

BIGCOMMERCE STANDARD

Bigcommerce’s cheapest offering, the ‘standard’ plan, costs $29.95 a month and is more expensive than the equivalent starter plans offered by its competitors Shopify and Volusion ($9 and $15 respectively) – but BC offers a more comprehensive starter plan than either of those plans

One of the good features about Big commerce I like is that right from the start when they began they had the user in mind and has always had a very good support base with nice written tutorials and also Video tutorials to support their paying customers. They, in fact, have updated it even further and now got Bigcommerce University which puts a first-class e-commerce education at your fingertips all in one place – to help you succeed.

This section has In-depth videos hosted online store experts will teach you how to launch your store, attract shoppers, improve conversion and build loyalty. As these are on videos you can watch them and when you want according to your schedule.

Bigcommerce also works with Alibaba.com

https://www.bigcommerce.com/alibaba

Alibaba.com (also known as Ali express app) the leading cheap gadget, clothing and pretty much everything store that ships stuff directly from China has now partnered with big commerce. You can source high-performing, competitively priced products with Alibaba Wholesale and then learn how to quickly create a beautiful, optimized online store to sell all those great new products you sourced from Alibaba.com

Bigcommerce and Alibaba.com make it easy to source and sell

What some of ALIBABA + Big commerce customers have to say :

In two years, we’ve seen a 150% increase in online sales. We had a big vision, and Bigcommerce has not only supported us, they’ve grown with us.

– Kirsten Dickerson, Raven + Lily

A little bit about ALIBABA.com

How to sell cheap China imports through your own website

Alibaba.com is a leading platform for global wholesale trade owned by Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA) and is listed on the NEW YORK EXCHANGE.

This website has an extensive network of Chinese wholesale suppliers that also list their low-cost products on this website. The partnership of big commerce with Alibaba can enable many entrepreneurs to seamlessly pick and sell individual low-cost products from this marketplace and sell it for higher prices with the Alibaba+BC collaboration.

Get started with Alibaba & BC over here

Everything you need for your online store

Snapshot of the feature list. Bigcommerce gives you a plethora of securely hosted ecommerce tools:

· Website Builder

· Domain name

· Secure shopping cart

· Powerful Marketing Tools

· Product catalog

· Payment gateway

· Marketing tools

· Reporting & Analytics

· Mobile-optimized store

· Award winning 24/7 Customer service

How to Set Up Your eCommerce Store with Bigcommerce

Bigcommerce is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms around. It’s not quite as ABC easy as Shopify, but it’s still simple to use, and what you lose in ease-of-use, you gain in customizability and performance.

Below is a video to show you how its done and also a written guide below it for you – with a quick step by step process.
Source Products with Bigcommerce + Alibaba.com

In this tutorial, we’ll show you just how easy it is to get started on Bigcommerce. If you’ve already got products to sell – you could be trading within a couple of hours.

The Most Popular E-Commerce Alternative ( Shopify)

If you want ease of use and quick setup of your online store, then you can consider “Shopify” as the best option for setting up and maintaining a shop by yourself.

Shopify is as good as Bigcommerce and some would argue better, their plans have a good affordable starting price and they are good for starting your own store as well as starting a drop shipping business.

Check out his Shopify video below and our free ~~90-day trial link~~ 14-day trial link

Get started with shopify free trial offer today

Shopify powers some of the world’s most successful online stores. They have hosted startups to billion-dollar businesses with companies in 100+ countries growing with shopify.

They offer a one-stop solution for your eCommerce store needs with various flexible pricing plans. The bespoke software creates beautiful and completely customizable online stores with powerful features, with the ability to sell products online with ease. They also process and ship orders, and track inventory, shopify has everything an online business needs.

Here is a look around video of a shop I built with Shopify and its damn easy to build if I’m building another shop right now – I would be using Shopify!

As part of our DigitalGrog Special deal – You can complete an online form to try shopify FREE for 14 days( no credit card required ). Click here to try it out

HOW TO Launch a store with Bigcommerce

Are you ready to start with big commerce – here is how you do it!

1. Essential Step – Sign Up to Bigcommerce here (free trial)

Enter the name of your store into the form on the home page. Don’t worry, you can change your store name later if you want to.

Click the orange button, Start my free trial now.

Fill Out Your Details > Create my store now >

Sit tight while Bigcommerce builds your store. This can take up to two minutes.

When your store is ready, you’ll see a big green open sign

You’re ready to go!

Click the orange button Visit your store.

2. Detailed Guide: Customize Your Store > Use the Bigcommerce Quick Start Wizard to get things set up as you want them.

[If you close the Quick Start Wizard by accident, you can re-open it using the big blue button at the top of the page, Quick Launch Wizard.]

> Set You Store Name and Address > Set Measurement Units and SEO Details

If you don’t want people to stumble across your half-finished store while you’re still creating it, select the box Yes, display a ‘Down for Maintenance’ message on my store.

Choose Your Theme > The next stage in the Quick Launch Wizard is to choose your theme and Logo.

The default template is Classic (White).

Scroll down to look at the different templates available.

To take a close look at any template, click on the template image. You’ll get a zoomed in preview.

Once you’ve decided on a template you like the look of, click the Apply this template text. When you’ve checked all the confirmation boxes, click Apply, and the theme will be applied to your store.

3. Add Your Logo >

The recommended size is 250 x 100 pixels. Bigcommerce will resize your logo if you upload an image of a different size.

[If you don’t have a logo, you can select Show Text where my logo will be displayed. You’re then given the option to enter the text you want to use instead of your logo.]

4. Add Products > Go to the Add a Product Page

Relaunch the Quick Launch Wizard, and click on Stage 2. Then click the blue buttonAdd Products. You’ll be taken to a page where you can add a product.

Complete Product Details > Add Product Description

Name Your Price and Shipping Costs > Add a Product Image

(When you’re done, click Save & Exit (or Save & Add Another, if you’ve got more products to list).

5. Set Up Payments, Shipping and Taxes > Configure Shipping

There will be guides available to help you go through these steps at set it up right as per your need for your store and your personal situation.

Launch Your Store!

With a payment gateway in place, you’re ready to let customers into your store. Return to the Quick Launch Wizard, and click the Launch button. Click the orange button Launch your store!.

Congratulations! you’re now an eCommerce trader! Now, all you need to do is find a way to pull in the customers (traffic).

Yes They have ABANDONED CART SAVER

What I really like about big commerce is the BIGCOMMERCE’S ABANDONED CART SAVER FEATURE. Bigcommerce’s abandoned cart feature – it’s one of the best out there. The tool allows you to create up to three automated emails to site visitors who go part of the way through the sales process only to leave your store without buying anything. T

This has the potential to dramatically increase your revenue with little effort – other than the ‘one-off’ time investment in setting up the automated messages – being involved.

Setting Up a wordpress blog with Ali express affiliate plugin

Aliexpress Affiliate Plugin

Ali plugin Allows You To Add Thousands Of Aliexpress Products To WordPress Website Quickly And Easily.

The Plugin Will Put Your Affiliate Id In All Links Back To Aliexpress, So You Get Commission For All Sales Referred To Aliexpress.com. Get it here

Check out our most recent Blog Post ( comparison of wordpress hosting for blogs)

Top web-hosts like Bluehost Hostgator Hostpapa Godaddy Crucial prices compared for 2018(updated)

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Software to Record your Audio and Video Streams from streaming sources

February 21, 2018 by admin 4 Comments

A long time ago there was either not as many services that provide online video streaming or services that provided streaming of audio and video and the ones that did were patchy at the best. It wasn’t pleasant with listening to buffering music and watching buffering video.

Things have come a long way now, Today there are a large number of video and audio streaming services from big ones like you tube and then popular services like Spotify, Apple Music , Google Music, Sound cloud and many more.

Many people today have paid monthly memberships with these services and it has become more affordable to actually get a streaming membership as you can set up favourites, favourite genres or playlists and listen whenever you want, but what do you do if you want to listen to it offline. That’s when streaming recording services can help you out. Audial is software that helps you record streaming services and lets you save audio and video on to your devices. I would suggest if you are going to use this software, please follow your local regulations and law when using any software for saving online streaming to your devices.

I have written a review on this software before, but they have come out with a new version so I am back to check out what’s new in au dials this time.

Audials now had Autoupdates that assures that users can keep using their Audials software as usual for the smartest music supply and the recording of all media streams.

Audials 2017 includes the new feature top songs, more chart hits, more musicians with their complete discography, an improved streaming recorder

Audials Classic from radio tracker for True Radio Fans now also allows you to Record Several Wishlists at the Same Time!

2018 DEAL
Audials One 2018 40 Percent Discount

Take Advantage of the 50% Discount!
Get it here –> 50% Audials One 2017/18 promotion

Get Audials One 2017 for USD $49.90!

Prices for this software:

Product	Price AUD
Audials One 2018 ~~Audials One Records Everything. Streaming recorder for music and films. Listen to and record internet radio stations. Format converter for all media and devices.~~	~~$76.06~~
Audials Music Rocket Get Music Fast, Legal and Free, listen to Radios and enjoy Podcasts as well as Music TV	$60.82
Audials Tunebite Platinum Record music and films from paid streaming services. Copy DVDs. All media always in the right file format for PC, smartphone and tablet. Including universal converter	$60.82
Audials Radiotracker Listen to and Record Radio Stations. Internet Recorder with 100.000 Radio Stations Delivers Huge Amounts of Free MP3s to Your Hard Disc Cleverly and for Free	$37.95

This software not only records live streams on your computer , laptop or tablet or mobile, but the 2017 desktop program can do a lot of video encoding and decoding to convert it to the right formats and save on your pc.

It has got an inbuilt audio/video converter to convert to most popular formats and also for playing on your smart devices.

You can enjoy Normal or HD saves on your desktop and other connected devices. If you want to check out more screenshots and detailed review of features check out my old post on this.

Audials also allows network streaming of audio/video from its software to your smart devices and apple tv . Take advantage of their current amazing deal of and get started today.

How does the Bose bluetooth speaker stack up

February 18, 2018 by admin 1 Comment

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If your searching for a good small portable speaker that will do the job well and is sturdy, then you might have just found the right one. The audio from this small bluetooth speaker will amaze you.

The new bose microlink bluetooth speaker is small yet packs a punch and is nicely suitable to Australian conditions if you are just lounging next to your pool or are taking in the sun at the beach. They are waterproof and made up of soft rubber material making it drop proof too.

Product Review of Bose Sound Link Micro Bluetooth Speaker

Bose is a company that has been producing ground-breaking audio products for over half a century. They understand how to make a good quality speaker and one of the more recent additions to their line-up is the Sound Link Micro Bluetooth Speaker and he more recent revolve model.

Price in AUD : Approx $169 (available at jbHifi)

Price in USD : At amazon $109 to $129

Price in Pounds : AT amazon from £99.95

Features

The Bose Sound Link Micro Speaker features an unparalleled sound quality complete with balanced sound and bass unheard of in such a small Bluetooth device. The design is compact and made to be taken anywhere. It is the ideal device to take with you to the beach, camping, hiking or anywhere your personal music is needed. Here are a few more features of the Sound Link that are worth mentioning:

· 6-hour battery life: After a single charge this speaker can last up to 6-hours before needing to be charged again. Though this is a shorter battery life than most other rechargeable speakers that Bose makes, what this device lacks in battery life, it makes up for with other worthwhile features.

· Voice Prompts: This speaker features a button that can be pressed to activate your phones assistant like Google or Siri. This feature will help if you don’t have your phone nearby.

· Bose Connect App: While other Bluetooth speakers require you to manually link and unlink to them through your devices settings, with the Bose Connect app you can easily switch from one device to another. Plus, this app comes equip with party and stereo settings which allows you to utilize two different Sound Link Micro speakers for your music, so the sound can carry to all the people attending your party.

· Waterproof: If you happen to be carrying your Sound Link speaker to the beach, attaching it to your bike while you ride through the rain, or using it poolside for a summer get together, you don’t have to worry about water damage thanks to the waterproofing of this product.

· Tear Resistant Strap: This strap comes in handy when it comes to attaching your Sound Link to any number of objects while you’re on the go. The strap is specially designed to be dependable and survive any number of situations while keeping your speaker intact.

· Made of silicone rubber: The rubber used to make the Sound Link speaker helps protect it from cracks, dents, and scratches. And eliminates gaps and seams in the speaker.

Cover /case for microlink

Pros

· Great for traveling and heading outdoors with.

· Utilizes the Bose Connect app to enhance sound quality, function, and overall usability of the Sound Link Speaker.

· Is built durably and made to withstand water damage.

Cons

· Is a bit expensive.

· Battery life is short when compared to other Bose rechargeable speakers.

Summary

Overall, this is a great quality product that produces clear and crisp sound whether indoors or out. Its additional features make it the perfect music companion when outside and is built to survive in any setting. The product is a little expensive for its size, however, you get so much out of this tiny speaker that you don’t mind the price at all. So, all things considered, this is definitely a device worth checking out.

Their competitors are JBL, BOOM,BEATS,HARMAN KARDON, JAM, B & O and SONOS and a few others. Let us know if you have come across a good one with good sound.

Latest Bose Models Released 2018

Bose SoundSport Free Headphones | No wires.

Bose® QuietComfort® 35 Headphones II | World-Class Noise Cancellation
With google Assistant

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Shopcred launches in Australia as the online shopping rewards market heats up

Is Google Home Smart Device Worth the Money

Comparison of Smart – Voice Activated Devices Google Home and Echo

Using your Google Home for Childrens Education

Breaking new payment technology PayID launches in Australia

How does PAY ID work?

How to register

How it works

Use PayID to receive money

Use PayID to send money

Want to know more about pay id ?

Why use PayID?

What this means With NPP?

Choosing the best eCommerce platform for your online store

List of top 5 E-commerce platforms

Compare Shopify Vs Bigcommerce features below

Pros and Cons of Using Bigcommerce for your online store

Pricing plans for Big commerce

Bigcommerce also works with Alibaba.com

Bigcommerce and Alibaba.com make it easy to source and sell

Everything you need for your online store

How to Set Up Your eCommerce Store with Bigcommerce

The Most Popular E-Commerce Alternative ( Shopify)

Yes They have ABANDONED CART SAVER

Software to Record your Audio and Video Streams from streaming sources

Prices for this software:

Audials One 2018

Audials Music Rocket

Audials Tunebite Platinum

Audials Radiotracker

How does the Bose bluetooth speaker stack up

Features

Pros

Cons

Summary

Design

Content

Strategy

Comparison of Smart – Voice Activated Devices Google Home and Echo

Using your Google Home for Childrens Education

How does PAY ID work?

How to register

How it works

Use PayID to receive money

Use PayID to send money

Want to know more about pay id ?

Why use PayID?

What this means With NPP?

List of top 5 E-commerce platforms

Compare Shopify Vs Bigcommerce features below

Pros and Cons of Using Bigcommerce for your online store

Pricing plans for Big commerce

Bigcommerce also works with Alibaba.com

Bigcommerce and Alibaba.com make it easy to source and sell

Everything you need for your online store

How to Set Up Your eCommerce Store with Bigcommerce

The Most Popular E-Commerce Alternative ( Shopify)

Yes They have ABANDONED CART SAVER

Prices for this software:

Audials One 2018

Audials Music Rocket

Audials Tunebite Platinum

Audials Radiotracker

Features

Pros

Cons

Summary

Footer

Design

Content

Strategy