Mobile Archives - Foreign policy

How can your business benefit from WeChat?

Published on July 11, 2019

WeChat is a messaging, social media and mobile payment app released in 2011. Due to its wide spectrum of functions, it is called “app for everything”. Not only do people use this app for messaging and social media, but also they often use it for work-related communication. Since the app wasn’t built for professional use, the team of designers came up with a similar app called WeChat Work. In this text, we are going to give you some basic information about WeChat and tell you how it can help your business.

When creating an account, you have to choose between a service and a subscription one. If you want to learn more about the features of both of these accounts, click here, but in a nutshell, the former one allows you four updates per month, while the latter one offers only one. If you opt for a service account you will be able to build a mini mobile site and use the app for payments, while subscription profile does not offer such features.

Furthermore, the WeChat app allows you to build your own online store and to sell your products. If you are tech-savvy, you can build it with HTML 5 pages in order to access all the features available. This also means that you will have to create it from scratch – deal with the design, coding, and so on. Moreover, you can use WeChat Mini Program that comes with many benefits.

First of all, it is not as expensive as a real website is. Secondly, it is extremely easy to navigate which makes it user-friendly. Also, users don’t have to download the app in order to see your store. This is very convenient especially if you are a new company that is trying to enter the market. Lastly, when it comes to selling items online, you can use an already established e-commerce platform.

Even though you cannot do much about the design and the features of this platform, for a reasonable amount of money, you will get a developed store with millions of visitors. Depending on the type of your product you can choose between Youzan and Jingdong platforms.

In addition, the app offers numerous features that will help you connect with your customers and spread awareness of your brand. You can use Auto Replay Tool to create messages that will be sent to potential clients automatically. Also, you can set up a welcome message every time someone visits your web store. Additionally, third-party features are available to you such as Grouping and Tagging which allows you to categorize your customers in different groups based on their age, gender, location, and so on.

Lastly, don’t forget to advertise your business. Design a QR code and put it on all marketing material such as brochures, flyers, etc. Use push notification to inform new visitors about your company and products, and use CRM functionalities and ask your customers to link their accounts with your loyalty program. Create interesting content to attract new customers, communicate with them regularly, offer them coupons and discounts, and so on.

To conclude, these are some main features of WeChat app you can use to develop your company. This app has 1 billion active monthly users which makes it a perfect place for you to start advertising your business on the Chinese market.

Utilize a Mobile POS Solution for Your Small Business

Published on June 20, 2019

Business

A point of sale (POS) system is essential for the running of any business that works directly with customers and sells goods and services to them. The technology behind POS systems has come a long way from those clunky terminals at the cash regisFter that processed purchases and made sales. Now, POS systems have gone mobile, allowing business to process payments on the go.

Mobile point of sale systems use smart phones, tablets, and dedicated wireless devices to process customer purchases using an internet connection. You’ll also need a card reader in order to swipe credit and debit cards in order to allow customers to make payments. The MagTek® card reader device supplied by Swift Payments can turn a number of mobile devices into a mobile payment system once it gets paired with an easy-to-use app.

After plugging in the device into your phone jack, all you have to do is download their payment app, create and login to your own secure account, and then bingo – you can immediately begin processing transactions in real-time all with a 3G or WiFi connection. The card reader uses an authenticator created with Magnesafe Security Architecture to protect cardholder data with instant dynamic encryption, tokenization, and authentication, so you can rest easy knowing that your customer’s information is secured over the WiFi connection.

Once a transaction is processed, all the customer has to do is sign off on their purchase using the mobile device’s touchscreen; from there, they have the option of being emailed their receipt. The good thing about mobile POS systems is that many of them can be connected to an existing POS system, allowing businesses the flexibility to make payments on the go but also utilize the benefits of a full-featured POS system.

Great for Small Businesses

Mobile point of sale systems are great for small businesses who don’t want to invest money into a full-fledged POS system, and instead are fine with simply connecting their mobile POS to directly to their bank account. This is great for smaller businesses like food truck vendors or even an interior designer who operates on their own. For someone who is constantly on the move, mobile POS allows vendors the freedom to bring their services straight to their customers.

This kind of mobile technology has empowered small businesses by giving them a means to offer their customers fast and efficient service that would otherwise be difficult to do. Now instead of waiting to process payments, transactions can be done in a swift and secure manner without hassle.

That’s why mobile point of sale systems are essential for businesses that are just starting up and don’t need to invest in large POS systems, especially if they don’t even have a bricks and mortar store to operate from. With the convenience of mobile devices, small business owners can empower themselves by using a point of sale system that is intuitive and easy to operate.

So if you are in the process of starting your own business then you should definitely look into investing into mobile point of sale system that is affordable, easy to use, and allows you to do business on the go.