The Amazon Webstore is closing its doors in June of 2016.  The platform is already unavailable to new merchants, and will soon be shutting down its offering to existing merchants.  If your online store currently uses the Amazon Webstore platform, you don’t have long to migrate your store and all its products to a new platform.  There’s still time to choose a new platform and complete your store migration to online store platforms like BigCommerce and Shopify.

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With the Summer slowly coming to an end, that means one thing for merchants… Christmas is almost here.

One of the key things that merchants can do to get ready for this holiday season is to make sure that their website is fully mobile ready.

I know, you’ve heard it all before… You have to be mobile, you get it… But your stats don’t show that you have a lot of mobile visitors.  Maybe being mobile is just a thing for the big guys like Amazon.com.

Going mobile is something that everyone should have done by now. But if you’re not mobile yet, don’t worry, because you’re not alone.

But here’s why you need to be mobile.  First, we’ve already surpassed the threshold in web traffic.  More than 50% of all internet traffic originates on a mobile device.

Second, have you spent time with anyone 25 or younger lately?  Chances are they don’t even own a computer.  Most likely they do most, if not all, of their communication via a single device… Their smart phone.

Think back to when the internet first started.  Yes, getting orders online in 1994 was less frequent than people walking into a brick and mortar store.  But fast forward to today, can you imagine doing business without a website?

The same feeling that you had about getting online 5, 10, or 15 years ago is the same feeling that you should have today about making sure that mobile customers have a good experience when shopping with you.

So what are some things that you should think about when going mobile?  The key thing to think about is making sure that your final product is user friendly.  The click areas should be large and easy to touch, and the most important information, such as the buy button, should be near the top.  You no longer need to worry about your page being too long and requiring scrolling.  Today, most people are able to easily scroll through websites using their finger or scroll wheel.

Give us a call today so we can help you make your website mobile friendly and compliant with Google. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and YouTube or give us a call at 866-515-2057. As always, thank you for choosing Ventura Web Design.

Kevin Richards, the CEO of Las Vegas based Ventura Web Design, broke the news that Amazon would be shutting down its Amazon Webstore ecommerce hosting service. Speaking at this year’s IRCE Focus Digital Design conference in Los Angeles, Richards told the audience that Amazon Webstore will be closing its doors as early as July 2016. This gives Webstore clients just over a year to migrate to a new platform.

Kevin later confirmed the news in an interview with eCommerce Bytes saying, “Ventura Web Design is a Solution Provider with Amazon Webstore, so we were in direct contact with Amazon’s Webstore team on this announcement.” Amazon later confirmed via email to its subscribers its plans to terminate the Amazon Webstore product. Of the announcement, Richards said “We’re very thankful to Amazon for giving its Solution Providers and Merchants such advance notice. This early messaging shows how much Amazon values and respects the relationship that it has with retailers. It is important to note that sellers can still use many tools to sell on Amazon, including Seller Central, Product Ads, and FBA.”

Speaking about other recent ecommerce platform news, particularly about the Yahoo spin-off of its Yahoo Stores, Kevin said, “This seems like a great opportunity to correct some of the confusion that exists on some of the blogs and social media. Yahoo is not shutting down Yahoo Stores. In fact, they are doubling down their efforts, re-energizing their employees, and significantly reinvesting in both their existing Yahoo Merchant Solutions product and the new Yahoo Stores product. We work closely with Yahoo and we’re seeing an enthusiasm, from both management and engineering, that gives us incredible confidence moving forward. Existing merchants should be looking forward to what will quite possibly be the best years yet.”

Kevin Richards opened his first digital business in 1990 and founded Ventura Web Design in 1997 and helped clients generate more than $1 Billion in revenue. Ventura is partnered with major e-commerce companies including Yahoo, Shopify, BigCommerce, and Amazon, and are experts in helping clients migrate from one platform to another.