Report: Ecommerce Expo London – 24th & 25th September 2025 I attend these trade shows primarily to identify emerging innovations, connect with suppliers, engage with clients, and gain insights from thought-provoking presentations. This year’s Ecommerce Expo in London was a significant step forward compared to last year’s event and, in my view, now clearly outpaces
Recently a trend is emerging especially on subscription sites, airlines, car hire and booking systems where its nigh on impossible to unsubscribe from their services. The scenario runs like this. subscribe in 1 click - unsubscribe using dark UI takes 18 steps where the confirmation to unsubscribe or extend for 3 more months is done
Event Overview This year, I attended the InternetRetailing Expo (IRX) at the NEC in Birmingham. Traditionally occupying a full exhibition hall, this year’s event was notably scaled down, filling only half the usual space. Despite this, my strategic focus on the B2B ecommerce sector ( currently the fastest-growing sector ) proved particularly fruitful. Concentrating
I visited eCommerce Berlin to explore new technologies for our eCommerce customers. I always like to write a report on these visits to help me evaluate the effectiveness of the visit and the follow through. Clerk.io This is a cookie less AI tool that does not seek to replace any of your
The Digital Markets Act (DMA), which is new EU legislation coming into effect in March 2024, designates Google as a “gatekeeper”, and as such, it is required to align with the DMA's objective for a fair and open digital market. In light of this, Google introduced a major update called “Consent Mode V2” to enable
If you sell drinks in containers over 150ml and under 3 liters in aluminum can or PET plastic containers with the Re-Turn logo on them with will are obliged add a recycling fee onto the sale of each container at the checkout. How will the Re-Turn scheme work in eCommerce ? Websites will need to
We have an Black Friday and Cyber Monday checklist that you can use as a template for preparation for retails biggest online event of the year. The checklist as been compiled from reviewing the last 5 years black Fridays plans over 40 clients. Some of the items may not be relevant but others may get
Have you ever thought about the "greenness" of super fast delivery ? Is it more economic to have an empty van delivery product in 2 hours to clients - maybe driving into the same complex 3 times a day. Or have the 1 van deliver 1 time a day to a complex. ? Or have
How reliable are Internet Speed Test and why do speed results differ This is written in response to all those calls agencies get telling them their clients sites are slow according to another websites point of view. Scenario Clients will run a lighthouse test or GT Metrix test see an "E" and send an irate
Exhibition Review: A Unique Blend of AI-Powered Innovations and Engaging Experience The exhibition I attended this year was a day trip to the NEC, conveniently accessible for visitors flying into Birmingham. Compared to their previous event, which faced challenges due to COVID, this exhibition featured fewer stands. However, the overall quality of the stands had
Enterprise Ireland’s €25K* Online Retail Scheme grant for retailers. The Enterprise Ireland (EI) online retail grant is worth up to €50,000 and can be awarded to any retailer in Ireland with more than 10 employees. The objective of this EI scheme is to help retailers transform their business so that their online and offline arms
List of AI tools for eCommerce. AI is rapidly becoming more important in ecommerce as a way of automating many time consuming tasks that add value and a competitive edge to your business. Benefits of Using Artificial Intelligence in eCommerce Personalized and Interactive Buying Experiences AI tools enable store owners to regard customer preferences in
What's New in Sage 50cloud Accounts v29 The customer and supplier records have 3 additional analysis and email fields, allowing 6 analysis and emails per record. The number of characters available in a Product record for the description and Part Number have been increased to 120 and 60. Added EORI number to customer and supplier
The importance of using GTIN's on your products Introduction If you're selling products online, you've likely heard of GTIN's (aka UPC codes). But if you're like me, the acronym might sound familiar but you don't really know what it means. Do I need to understand the ins and outs of GTINs? How do they work?
Using AI in ecommerce is possibly the most exciting thing to hit since ecommerce was invented in the mid 90's This article has not been written by a Robot and you can knwo this by the typohs I have left in on purpose ! I like to refer to it as automated intelligence as all
I visited the eCommerce expo in London in September 2022 and I have reviewed my experience. I give some tips on show attendance. There is certainly an appetite for investment by online retailers. To the exhibitors. These split into 3 sizes. the gold dust is at the edges of the hall where there was lots
Retirement of3D Secure Version 1 Tthe card schemes will retire 3D Secure Version 1 (3DS1) globally in October this year. Benefits of 3D Secure Version 2 over Version 1 Greater acceptance performance.Reduced friction with the introduction of frictionless authentication.Mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) support in addition to browser authentication.A safer customer experience with stronger
E-commerce Abbreviations - been at a meeting and keep hearing abbreviations and afraid to ask what they mean. Every ecommerce manager needs to know what these are . One day you will be asked : what your BI is on your LTV on PPC acquired customers using BNPL for the EMEA region, and you are
In 2008 Google Analytics was introduced. For ecommerce it was used to measure sources of traffic and conversion rates etc. However data in ecommerce is more complex then before. Example a buying journey starting on a mobile phone and then finishing on a tablet or a PC or some other device. This is a lite
Stripe payments is now offering direct debit payment processing. This is especially useful for subscriptions, utility billing and Corporate Billing environments. Up till now Direct Debit integration onto a website was a large piece of technical work as no-one was offering the flows on the processor end. Websites had to develop these flows. Now Stripe
Which ecommerce platform is the best ? A question we get asked many times. "It depends is the best answer" as there are so many factors that go into choosing the platform. You will expect to see a top 10 of ecommerce platforms. This is the wrong approach and the reason why many ecommerce operators
How to protect your business data on ecommerce ? Most business owners would agree that if their client list was given to a competitor that it would devalue their company to zero. Yet many ecommerce sites we audit will be giving away 100% of their business intelligence and in 99% of cases paying to do
Revolut payments are now possible across many opensource ecommerce platforms. We can integrate : revolut for Opencart revolut for WooCommerce revolut for Prestashop Integrations are best done by a skilled company who can help you avoid pitfalls. How much does it cost to accept card payments? Opening a Merchant Account is completely free of charge.
The Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment has proposed a further call for Online Retail Scheme applications, aiming to encourage the retail sector in Ireland to develop a more competitive online offer that will enable an increase in their customer base and build a more resilient business in the domestic and global marketplace both online
eCommerce in a cookieless environment. Tracking cookies are becoming worthless as Chrome and IOS are basically not populating them nor handling them in their browsers. This has a dramatic effect advertisers and platforms like facebook who rely on pixel advertising to feed back targeting and customer advertising and tracking. Google and Apple say this is
CS Cart Developers Ireland. CS Cart Development & Design located in Ireland. Willows Consulting provide a full CS Cart service to new and existing customers. A popular opensource shopping cart with features not found in other platforms. CS Cart is using by many large eCommerce business's in Ireland and around the world. This is an
The size of the Irish ecommerce market 2 million households 64% live in cities/towns. 80% have access to the internet and smart phones 75% connect on social media daily. 70% shop online at least 1 time a month 63% will research online before making a big ticket purchase 26% spend online 6 or more times
A useful black friday ecommerce checklist we have compiled based on our experience of managing ecommerce stores during black friday since 2002. Start this planning in June of the same year. Start with a retrospective look at what you did last year and what worked. Set your KPI's and targets for this year and then
Typically ecommerce stores collect lots of data and owners tend not to clear this down. This is a dangerous practice and can put your whole business at risk. Imagine some one gets access to your database. They have pretty much all your business intelligence and a way to leverage some extortion. Information is power and
Willows Consulting are finalists in this years Digital Media Awards. "It is a huge recognition of the quality and loyalty of our Team of engineers and designers over the last 18 months. As an eCommerce only agency we have been hectic saving many traditional businesses by helping them to start trading online. Its an honor
Have you received an Unsolicited Vulnerability Report on your ecommerce site stating that your site can be hacked and they are looking for a bounty to show you the weakness and fix it ? TLDR : The best approach to handling this email is to contact a creditable security consultant, and hire them to investigate
The introduction of 3Ds and SCA2 on credit cards was intended to make transactions more secure for the shopper and the merchant. This was in reaction to a flood of fraud visited upon merchants where they had to do their own checks on the quality of the payment card being presented. 3Ds introduced the liability
We link Sage50 ( uk edition ) to BigCommerce. This is suitable for retail setups. B2B setups are subject to how the pricing structure is setup in sage. Synchronisation of prices from sage to BigCommerce stock levels from sage to BigCommerce orders from BigCommerce to sage ( option to allocate stock immediately or later. )
We have decided to write this post in response to the many calls we get for this. It will save you time in the future. When we refer to sage50 here we mean the UK edition not the US or Canadian version - which is rebranded peachtree. When linking Shopify to Sage50 there are limitations
Google is now pushing hard promoting the message that page speed is one of their primary ranking factors. We have been looking at this information from google and seeing if its true that it does help ranking. We applied changes to a site that was ranking in the doldrums after a long period of keyword
How to change opencart journal cart method. I am asked this many times a week.
EU Ecommerce Vat Rate Rules Removal of distance-selling thresholds EU distance selling thresholds are "removed" as of 1 July 2021. Previously, this meant VAT only applied to intra-community distance sales if annual turnover was more than €35,000 for sales to most EU countries, or €100,000 per annum for Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
What is the best size for ecommerce product images? min 600 px x 600 px and a file size of under 100k. max 1000 px x 1000 px and a file size of under 100k. Why 1000px, that is huge ? It allows software to create good quality thumbnails. If the original image is too
What are the Shopify Costs vs Opensource ? Here is a rough calculator to estimate the difference in cost of running an ecommerce store on shopify versus an opensource ecommerce platform. This does not take into account the cost of build because both are essentially the same to build. Read our blog post how much
Listen to Sean Owens founder of Willows Consulting sharing the love and offering some tips for Digital Agency Startups. Interviewer : Clodagh Higgins of the Agency Life Podcast.
Brexit and Ecommerce how will it effect Irish Ecommerce Site Owners ? All your products that you export to the UK will be treated as exports outside of Europe. They will be vat free from Ireland but will have vat applied at point of entry into the UK. This will be the UK rate of
What is carding ? Carding is the attempt by fraudsters to find valid card numbers by attempting many transactions on ecommerce using a different card number. Once a card is successful its then used on another site for a fraudulent transaction. Fraudsters are mining credit card numbers to see which ones have no security and
What to do when you get too many orders online a list of do's and dont's. Do Use banners on the site to notify of delayed order delivery times If you have to stop taking orders disable the buy now buttons, do not replace the site with 1 page. ( see our detailed post on
Opencart Development since 2011. Opencart is a widely used e-commerce platform in Ireland and across the word. It is known for its stability, speed and excellent SEO performance. It is fully customisable with a range of over 20,000 addons and templates. Willows Consulting employ 5 Opencart Developers who all have over 5 years opencart experience.
How to close your ecommerce site and not kill your SEO ranking. Many of ecommerce businesses are closing for pandemic "lock downs" . When you do this you need to be careful not to kill your hard earned organic SEO. Important thing is to keep in contact with your customers and keep them informed and
Scaling Ecommerce Hosting for Big Events. Read this point by point as every element is important to get your site to perform, stay up and collect as much money as possible. Got an instagrammer with 3 million followers and wondering how to make your website take the traffic without falling over ? First get the
So google has updated their index and your site that ranked no 1 for lots of words has dropped to page 2. First thing most will do is panic and hope the boss is not watching the stats carefully. If you have been engaging in Black Hat SEO, bad news you have been possibly nicked
We integrate Global Payments systems onto most e-commerce platforms for our Irish customers. We are accredited Global Payments integrators. We can manage multiple currencies, and multiple accounts from the one or many e-commerce platforms. Because we are installing so many Global Payment integrations, we are up to speed with the latest developments and functions of
This free Ecommerce Business Planner has been developed to help business owners and startups to see if they can make money online. We developed this after fielding and attending so many ecommerce project kickoffs where we saw that there was no way the client was going to make money from their venture. Most newbies
The awards season is hotting up nicely. Our client Celtic Whiskey Shop are in the final 3 for the best ecommerce site in Ireland. The Eir Spider awards are the Oscars of the web design industry. Sean Owens MD of Willows Consulting said. "To be in the Final of this hotly contested category is amazing.
This Free Ecommerce Website Tender Document is intended to make it easier for you to get ecommerce quotes from a number of companies and then to be able to compare the quotes side by side because they are in the same format. Ecommerce Tender Sample Template This document will get you thinking about all the
We are delighted to have been awarded Web Guru of the day award for the site we developed for s50cloud.com. ( which by the way makes an ecommerce site from your sage50 accounts in 10 minutes !! ) Its good for our teams work to be rewarded with accolades as it validates their work and
Punchout for Ecommerce This is the method of getting product from your ecommerce site into your customers procurement system. It is a requirement for many suppliers to be able to link in with these systems. If you cannot do punchout then you are not going to be allowed to supply or sell. Typically organisations using
Since August 2018 Google has been changing dramatically search for products. Organic ranking is becoming less relevant and less powerful as Google monitize their service to businesses. Businesses relying on organic listings and are seeing their sales and visitors drop while still occupying position "no 1" on the page 1 of google for selected search
Bogus Opencart Security Email If you get an email telling you to update your opencart installation because of a security update please ignore the instructions. DO NOT FOLLOW THE LINKS IN THE EMAIL. The email is not from Opencart. This email operates by extracting the FTP details ( if you have been foolish enough to
Introduction. How to optimize your product pages for Google search ? Product detail Pages with good SEO provide the best ROI on click throughs. We know that if a google search delivers a searcher on to a specific product page it is better than a list of products. This is because niche search has
So your Wordpress automatically updated to version 5 and removed the editor and replaced it with the GutenBerg editor. Fusion Builder not working anymore and does not display. Our fix is a clever plugin called Remove Gutenberg. Once installed it fixed the issue immediately and replaced the original editor. Download the plugin here https://perishablepress.com/disable-gutenberg/ Many
How to pick the right domain name. Follow this checklist. When choosing a valuable domain for your new business there are 12 domain choosing tips you should consider. use the smallest number of letters try to start with the first 10 letters of the alphabet ( you will appear higher up listings as most are
We are Sylius developers located in Ireland. Its a highly extensible and flexible ecommerce system developed with the custom ecommerce solution in mind. You add the features you want. Under the lid it is quite different and clever. It is using the php symphony framework. This means that addons are less likely to clash with
BigCommerce Design and Development Ireland. We provide the following BigCommerce Services for Irish and international clients : Custom Template Designs Custom pages ( ones that are outside of what you can do with the built in widgets ) Integrations with B2B Ecommerce Systems POS systems ERP systems Procurement Systems Accounting packages Sage 50 ( UK
Ecommerce SEO company eCommerce SEO Company We provide ecommerce seo services. An excellent ecommerce seo ranking is essential to being successful online. During and after your site is built a large part of your time and energy will be devoted to your google ranking. We offer a specialist ecommerce seo service for your
We provide a full sageline50 integration service to your osommerce website. Imagine getting sales from your website into sage line50 10 minutes after they were completed online with zero errors. All versions of oscommerce are supported. With our sageline 50 to oscommerce integration you can : Update products Update prices Update customer group pricing (
Ecommerce website developers, everything from design, deployment, integration, SEO and ongoing support and development. We have been doing ecommerce website development since 2002 and have a huge experience in this field. Why waste money on a newbie when you can get an established company with a wealth of experience to do the same job
We develop custom addons( private ), integrations and themes for shopify stores. Have you been looking at the shopify addons and integrations and cannot find what you want so as to fit your theme, selling model or offering. Maybe you need a custom one that would provide the missing magic link in your business. We
B2B ecommerce is the fastest growing ecommerce sector in the world. In the USA B2B ecommerce sales account for up to 55% of total transactions in most B2B businesses. ( 2018 forrester report ) In Ireland B2B ecommerce accounts for 7% of total transactions. There is a huge potential for growth in this sector. Most
Shopify to sage50 integration is possible using our shopify to sageline50 integration solution. Once you have this in place you will be able to : Download orders from shopify to sagelin50 automatically including Order lines with seperate skus and vat rates per line Discounts on shopify recorded in sage Multicurrency posting ( if multicurrency is
Link SageLine50 to eCommerce ? You have come to the right place. This is what we specialise in. Main Features: Automatically download and create Sales orders and Invoices Publish product details, sales prices and stock levels so they are available online to your customers or suppliers Upload Stock Categories and Tax rates to reflect your
We link Sageline50 to WooCommerce. We also link sage200 and sageline 200 to woocommerce. update prices, stock levels and titles with Sage import customers from Sage to Woocommerce import customer account summaries from Sage to Woocommerce your customers can view their whole account online and print copy invoices 24/7 posting back order status changes from
Many head into ecommerce with no plan and after about 2 years leave disappointed. If you create an ecommerce business plan you can tell very early on if you can make a profit to cover your costs and return a salary. If you are a retail store then some of these assets
We link Profile Technology Accounts to the following opensource ecommerce products. Opencart OsCommerce Zencart WooCommerce Push your products and prices onto your website automatically. Pull your web orders into your accounts system automatically. Call us today for more details on our integrations.
We provide link software to link your inFlowInventory software with Opencart and other opensource ecommerce platforms. Contact us today with your requirements.
We provide braintree payment integrations to the following ecommerce platforms. opencart magento woocommerce prestashop virtuemart oscommerce zencart cubecart cs-cart We also provide bespoke integrations, so if you have a bespoke platform that takes payments we can integrate Braintree payments for you. Call our integration team today on +35315242100
we now link TasBooks to Opencart. This allows the pushing of products, prices and customers in TASBooks to opencart, and for the pushing of sales orders from opencart to TASBooks. All you need to to is print an post your sales order in TASBooks when it has come across. We can even display customers outstanding
We now provide a plugin to link TASBooks to WooCommerce. Features included : product price upload product quantity in stock upload product trade, wholesale and retail price upload product price breaks upload ( requires extra woocommerce plugin for this ) customer upload automatic customer account creation on upload and issuing of usernames and passwords. sales
We develop modules, addons upgrades and maintenance for the ecommerce platform arrasta. This platform is a fork of the opencart platform and shares alot of the code structure. Fill our contact form today with your requirements.
Magento to TasBooks we now supply and integrate. Save hours processing product updates to your website and rekeying orders into TasBooks. With our plugin you can upload from TasBooks to Magento : Products Upload Products Prices, Weights, Quantity in Stock Retail, Wholesale, and Trade Prices, Quantity Price Breaks Specials Vat Codes Customers Upload Customer names
CS Cart is a leading and growing ecommerce opensource platform. It's out the of the box features exceed alot of other established ecommerce products. It has an exceptionaly light foot print and scales up to large stock and transactions easily. Unlike other opensource products CS Cart has a yearly license fee depending on the number
Woocommerce is the e commerce plugin for wordpress that has taken the e commerce world by storm. We support sites built with woocommerce ireland. Woocommerce comes with a wide set of features out of the box and a good selection of pre-made templates from other vendors like themeforest and woo themselves. It is an excellent
We can now link Opencart to the following epos and accounts applications. opencart to cybertill opencart to Cegid Opencart to Pursuit Opencart to G7 Opencart to Sanderson Opencart to Eurostop Opencart to Khaos Control Opencart to Microsoft Dynamics Ooencart to Visual 2000 Opencart to Top To Toe Opencart to Access Dimensions Opencart to Epicor
Stripe Payments now integrated and linked into all mainstream opensource ecommerce. Call us today about setting up and linking your Stripe Payments account to ecommerce.
We now can integrate SmartFreight® to Opencart. SmartFreight® is a Transport Management Systems (TMS). It is not a transport company like UPS or DHL. It helps you get the best rates from these providers. IFS SmartFreight® Online is used to estimate shipping costs at the checkout using the most cost effective shipping method for you. SmartFreight®
We integrate Paypal payments to all opensource platforms. Opencart, OsCommerce, Zencart, Magento, Prestashop, Virtuemart, WooCommerce, Hikashop and bespoke PHP platforms. We support the following Paypal payment methods. Subscription payments One off payments Invoice Payments Multi-Currency Mobile Payments Staged payments or Lay-away Payment on Collection ( ebay ) Escrow ( ebay ) Paypal often proves to
Willows Consulting is an ecommerce consulting firm providing comprehensive advice and consultancy building ecommerce websites since 2002. We provide Ecommerce consulting in Dublin, the rest of Ireland and the UK. Sean Owens - Ecommerce Consultant Our service includes : Ecommerce business discovery projects Writing RFT's for ecommerce projects Writing tenders for ecommerce
We offer NetPay integrations to the following shopping carts. Opencart Magento Oscommerce Zencart VirtueMart WooCommerce Netpay allows for the following payment types. Subscription billing Recurring payments of different amounts Card holder not present billing Netpay does require you to have a merchant credit card account in place.
Saas Ecommerce vs opensource ecommerce The debate between Saas based Ecommerce vs Opensource Ecommerce goes on. Below we have done a comparison based on SEO Feature Saas OpenSource You own your ecommerce store independently No Yes You can add custom features later No Yes Multi Channel selling ( ebay, amazon plugins ) Yes Yes You
We offer the following bundle that allows you to have a ready to go SMS remote printing for opencart 1. SMS printer fully configured for your site and fitted with a working SIM 2. Printer software communication addon for opencart vqmod 3. 2 way communication with your opencart installation the the SMS printer, good for
There are 4 main types of ecommerce platform.1. opensource E.G. opencart, prestashop, magento,woocommerce, virtuemart, zencart, oscommerce, cs cart etc. No license fees. Just hosting and 1 off design / development costs at start up. 2. licensed and hosted by the store owner ( paid magento, actinic, shopify ), continous fees. 3. Saas
Wirecard payments We provide wirecard integrations for : Opencart Oscommerce Zencart Virtuemart Presta shop Drupal Magento Call us today for a consultation on integrating wirecard onto your opensource ecommerce store.
This is possibly the single point where most ecommerce projects fail to make it to market or function. It is the stress point of business, as they are investing money and not getting any revenue until the site goes live. The way you define the product on the outset determines the response
You are now setup and selling a modest amount of product. Well done you have reached the you first ecommerce milestone. The next milestone is to get you site and all the product names and descriptions translated professionally for your target market. We have seen examples where clients on translating their site
When you are planning your online store you need to put aside a large budget for advertising and promotion. Getting your first 1000 customers is expensive and in most cases you will not make money doing this. Know where your market lives on the internet. They can live in Social Media, Google
Checkout process and steps have to be smooth fast and logical. Customers should only be asked for information once. Asking customers to re-input information already completed just frustrates. You are aiming to please your customer not frustrate them. Most ecommerce products have a smooth and well formed checkout process. Think hard about
The cost of shipping and fulfilling orders will have a big impact on the margin you are going to make on your product. Typcially items under 1kg are alot cheaper to fulfill than items over 1kg. Items over 1kg may need to be stored nearer to the target customer so as to
When a customer purchases in your store your have won a new customer, now the challenge is to keep them and make them return again. When fulfilling orders online remember the customer wants to know when and where the product will arrive. They will require no surprises like taxes and duties to
What payments should I use on my ecommerce site ? When selecting your payment processor you have to consider 7 items : What is the average unit value of each sale What number of transactions per month are you predicting What countries are you selling to What is you current banking setup
This is a really important item. The speed of your site depends on 2 items: 1. the technology and how well it is put together to build the ecommece engine 2. the speed latency of the hosters servers Your checklist for hosting on ecommerce : What are the technical requirements to run
The Presentation of product for ecommerce has a massive bearing on how many of the products you will sell. The only thing your customer cannot do is touch the product but they can do everything else. It is all about building the confidence of the customer. The more confident they get the
You may have already selected the line of product you are selling online or you may be choosing what type of product to sell. There are some important considerations to consider. what level of fraud will this product attract. Example jewellery attracts more fraud than t-shirts ? how perishable is the product.
Choosing the correct ecommmerce platform is essential to the running of your store. How secure is the product ? Products that are opensource all have the benefit of an open community that keeps watch on security 24/7. When security issues arise they are usually patched within hours. The more mature opensource products
All the listed products have the standard ecommerce features, multi lingual, multi currency, SEO friendly occupying at least 5% of the market, established more than 3 years and opensource. We hope this allows you to choose the best product for your online store. 5=Excellent 4=Good 3=Moderate 2=Poor 1= Bad 0= knock off
