Thursday, November 29, 2012

The Importance of E-Commerce Research

E-commerce web research can focus on any number of issues that pertain to an online business. Whether you are looking to increase your sales, launch an online business, promote to the search engines or simply investigate new consumer trends for product development, internet research is essential to keep up with online changes and to remain competitive. Some common examples of e-commerce research are examined below:

Keyword research:

Consumer search behaviour and the promotion of an online business go hand in hand. Irrespective of the nature of the business, each business supplies a product or service that can be categorized by common keywords. It is essential to research what keywords describe the nature of the business and which keywords consumers use to find the business. This e-commerce web market research is then used as the basis of search engine and pay-per-click campaigns. It is essential to do this research to scope and bound your market. You can then position your web site and drive targeted traffic to increase sales and exposure.

Conversion Research:

E-commerce web research that concentrates on conversion seeks to examine which keywords are delivering online sales. By recording transactions and tracking visitors by keyword, this research helps to narrow down the target market to eliminate pay-per-click costs and ramp up natural organic search positioning. By knowing which keywords convert, you can execute very effective pay-per-click campaigns and realize a higher return on your investment.

Market Research:

This can include investigating the business landscape for competition, product research or to identify new and unexplored opportunities. Because of the growth of online users, markets are expanding on a geographical basis. Every time a new product is created, the internet can be used as a medium to deliver these products and services to a hungry audience. Doing research to uncover potential hidden niches is a lucrative fringe benefit of doing e-commerce web market research to identify existing or new product potential.

Usability Research:

This area of e-commerce web research focuses on consumer purchasing behavior. Knowing how consumers respond and to what offers provides significant cognitive insight into purchasing behavior. When you are doing a volume of transactions online and paying for targeted traffic, modifying your offer, changing your copy or adapting your product pricing can result in a significant profit upgrade. Everything in the online space can be measured by percentages, so if you have a small incremental rise in your conversion rates, this can bring significant monetary return to your investment.

E-commerce research is an ongoing requirement for any business looking to enter a market or improve performance in an existing one. Companies that dedicate the time to planning and evaluating their e-commerce web market research will see a significant improvement in the way they do business.

What Sort Of E-Commerce Business Are You?   Why Shopping Online Is Good For You   Understanding Web Traffic Conversion Rate To Improve Your Online Strategy   Setting Up an Ecommerce Store: The Basics   The Benefits of an Online Store   Got $20? Why Not Start Your Own Business?   

Choosing the Right Provider for Your Fashion E-Commerce Brand

Statistics in recent years show that fashion e-commerce is booming on a global scale, and the sector is responding. Whilst the likes of boohoo.com have jumped straight into the online market with notable success, we're now seeing a huge array of fashion retailers from small boutiques to luxury and high street brands translate their offers to the digital space.

This is great news if you're in the business of clothing - but to maximise the opportunity you need to ensure that your logistics are up to scratch. Of course, a huge part of this means choosing a logistic fulfillment provider with the right blend of warehousing, garment processing and e-commerce expertise to carry your brand into the online world. Here are the key issues to consider to make sure you get this crucial decision right.

Know your provider's garment processing capacity

When you're talking to different firms it's vital to know exactly what they're capable of - and that means asking the right questions. How many units can they process an hour? What equipment do they use and how is this maintained? From tunnel pressing to relabelling you need to know that your garment processing team are fully qualified and equipped, able to deliver to your volume and critical paths, and work in a clean, well lit space supporting by full warehousing and distribution facilities.

Clarify your garment processing providers' quality control procedures

Quality control is vital - so explore systems thoroughly with the logistic fulfillment providers you're talking to. You should expect to see evidence of garment testing to AQL 2.5 standards plus testing criteria covering 100% of the product. Metal detection machines should be regularly serviced and staff training maintained and updated. You should also establish how the garment processing team will report to you, and whether that reporting is fully compliant with statutory duties and obligations.

Adding value to your fashion brand with e-commerce fulfillment

If you're moving your brand online - or starting up a new internet fashion store - then your fulfilment systems need to adapt to this market. There are now third party logistics firms out there who also specialise in integrated e-commerce fulfillment.

Explore the extent to which you can link your website with the providers' wireless management system (if they don't have one look elsewhere, it's a must these days). The ability to automate product listings, order fulfillment, shipment tracking and many other e-commerce functions may add a little more when negotiating your budget. But when you analyse that against the countless man hours you would spend trying to manage these functions manually you will almost certainly win out.

Finally, when you're looking for a garment processing provider remember one important thing. All business is about people - and nowhere do you need to rely on your service provider more than in the world of logistics. A good provider will understand that and will be keen to develop their services to grow with your business. If the evidence checks out, the services meet your requirements and the relationship feels right then the chances are you're onto a winner.

What Sort Of E-Commerce Business Are You?   Why Shopping Online Is Good For You   Understanding Web Traffic Conversion Rate To Improve Your Online Strategy   Setting Up an Ecommerce Store: The Basics   The Benefits of an Online Store   Got $20? Why Not Start Your Own Business?   

The Importance Of Planning Ecommerce Projects

Ecommerce web projects require a project management framework to scope and bound project requirements and to serve as a guideline for stakeholders and the development team. With a high percentage of ecommerce web projects subject to adjustment, cost overruns and budgetary blowouts are a common consequence of failing to adequately plan. If you about to undertake an ecommerce site project, here are some guidelines to follow:

Develop a Robust Plan: Most projects start out with loosely defined functionality. This can create problems for the development stage. Programmers are required to interpret specifications and to code them accordingly. If you haven't carefully thought out the exact project specifications and articulated them accordingly, you need to do so before commencing the project build. When developers create the database, they establish dependent relationships. If, at a later stage, you decide to modify the project structure extensively, this can create a series of cascading problems for the development team. The first and foremost consideration is to spend time planning your ecommerce project before commencing development.

Select Experienced and Reputable Personnel: To execute an ecommerce project plan you need to have suitably qualified personnel. It is important to check the experience and credentials of potential candidates and web development companies before employing their services. The cheapest option is not always the best. If the company does not follow a project methodology then you can run into quality control problems that consume time and money. The past development of projects should provide a guideline as to whether the company can handle the project requirements. Securing the services of experienced personnel can help guide the project seamlessly.

Perform Extensive Platform, Usability and Stress Testing: Ecommerce web projects need to be tested across browsers, platforms and subjected to extensive functional checks. This is to ensure that the project is commercially robust, user friendly and meets the project requirements. If you have integrated payment gateways, this means testing for security measures to insulate the site form potential outside attacks. The developer or Web Company should have extensive protocols for performing these checks. When qualifying potential candidates to build the internet project, you can ask about this stage to establish the quality control standards followed by the candidate.

The above guidelines should help provide an overview for ecommerce site project management. Internet projects follow a similar process to that of the software development life cycle. You can learn more about this process by doing a web search on this.

What Sort Of E-Commerce Business Are You?   Why Shopping Online Is Good For You   Understanding Web Traffic Conversion Rate To Improve Your Online Strategy   Setting Up an Ecommerce Store: The Basics   The Benefits of an Online Store   

Don't Sell Ordinary Stuff on Your Website - Make Your Products Exceptional

Getting people to buy from your website can be a bit of a problem. Even though it is convenient, one of the problems is the fact they can compare your offers to other similar products within a blink or two of an eye. Competition is at its highest and prices are being pushed down all the time. A couple of years ago ebooks were being sold for $97; nowadays it's $7 or less.  There are price comparison sites forcing retailers to offer even lower prices and there are bloggers and Facebook users advising people not to buy certain items. For anyone trying to sell online it is rather like the Rubik Cube; as soon as you start to get it all sorted, something else happens and it all unravels.

There is also another problem nowadays - the number of people selling the same thing.  Years ago you were the only act in town. You could sell your products and services to all your target customers locally and anyone else selling the same things was happy with their geographical coverage. Now, thanks to the web, all that has gone. Whilst you may still be able to protect your local marketplace somewhat, any one of your target customers could find what they are looking for from someone else, perhaps miles away.

Take for instance the humble office supply of stationery. Years ago there were just a couple of places to get office stationery - a local specialist supplier and a high street bookseller. Now there are places like Staples or Office Depot/Viking (the same company actually) as well as Ryman and a number of independent online retailers who all buy from the same massive wholesaler. On top of this, almost anyone with a website can become a reseller or affiliate for office products and many of the online stationery stores are built around affiliate links.

However, the mere fact that there are now millions of affiliate pages offering just stationery items online means that the competition is immense. And it is not just stationery - many other products and services are becoming similarly commoditised thanks to the web. For anyone selling online, the stuff they sell is just "ordinary" because so many other people are selling it too. Indeed, even if you are offering something quite special, such as a bespoke travel service for business executives - tough, there are hundreds of people online doing just the same. What was once seen as "special" is now just "ordinary".

That is a big problem for e-commerce stores. New research shows that, when it comes to spending, people are much more likely to spend on "special" things than ordinary. The study found that when it comes to budgeting, people are really quite good on working out their spending on normal, commonplace items. But when it comes to discretionary spending on exceptional things, people tend to underestimate how much they are spending and therefore commit more of their money to such items.

Because so much e-commerce these days is seen as "ordinary", people are less likely to spend as much as the store owners might hope. The only way out of that for the business wishing to sell more online is to make their items seem exceptional and special. The more you make your offers seem exclusive and unusual, the more people are likely to buy from you.

What Sort Of E-Commerce Business Are You?   Why Shopping Online Is Good For You   Understanding Web Traffic Conversion Rate To Improve Your Online Strategy   Setting Up an Ecommerce Store: The Basics   The Benefits of an Online Store   

Things to Do Before Integrating an ECommerce Software to Your Website

Unlike blogs, an eCommerce business should have a strong support for running an online store in its most efficient manner. When in a blog, your best support is the features and customizations visitors will love, in an ecommerce solution the best support is having a great ecommerce software integrated into your website. Through that, expect greater cash flow management at its best. Before PayPal was a convenient choice for customers but due to recent developments, a lot of payment systems emerge and people are looking for more convenient ways to pay online. With the competition increasing, a shopping cart with a lot of features are the ones that will keep your site from running smoothly for years to come.

Buying an online shopping cart is easy. Just take note of the features the shopping cart has which can be of help to your website. To give you a hint, other than providing a lot of payment options, you need to think of customization. How well you can match the software to your site depends on the templates it has and customization options available. Have a look at WYSIWYG template editors so you can make a customized template yourself even without any coding knowledge. Another thing to think about before buying one is security features the software offers. 128-bit SSL encryption is important in keeping transactions confidential, and frequency of updates or fixes will help in getting protected from security holes. But then again, you can get a shopping cart for free but make sure it meets your requirements.

Once you have decided an ecommerce software, its time to integrate it in your website. Selecting a shopping cart solution which will go along with your ecommerce software is crucial so before you integrate it to your website you need to consider several options like if the shopping cart is proving exact and accurate information about the products being sold. It must be competitive with your business, and you should have knowledge of the daily transaction load of your website. You should also analyze the cost of your shopping cart and match it with other factors before you decide to buy one. Take note that your customers should be in focus with your business cycle. Customer satisfaction is very crucial as you are dealing with customers online. The software should provide you with the ability to manage transactions transparently to provide convenience to your customers.

Hiring professionals than doing the integration yourself provides the best experience in setting up the software to your website. They are also expert in customization of your site which can then save you time in creating one and money in buying a template. Ecommerce solution made shopping online secure and convenient. As a web store owner, you should provide your customers with the best and full-featured site, and optimal support to your customers to make shopping hassle-free. Remember that the your web store is not all about business but more on providing excellent customer satisfaction for better conversion rates. So before, you integrate you ecommerce solution to your website, make sure to follow this guide.

What Sort Of E-Commerce Business Are You?   Why Shopping Online Is Good For You   Understanding Web Traffic Conversion Rate To Improve Your Online Strategy   Setting Up an Ecommerce Store: The Basics   The Benefits of an Online Store   

Why E-Commerce Websites Score Over Offline Retail Stores

Since the beginning of human civilization, trade and commerce have played a vital role in growth and prosperity. It all started with traders in sailing ships traveling to unknown lands in search of wealth and opportunity. Today the rapid development of science and technology has ensured that the world has shrunk to a global village.

Over the years, businesses processes have also continuously redefined themselves to survive and keep abreast with changing times and customer expectations. The internet revolution has played a major role in this and rapid development of e-commerce platforms and payment gateways is a testimony to this.

An e-commerce website for a retail business helps to position the business on a global platform without any advertising or promotional cost whatsoever. It saves the business major overheads like rent, salary and advertising in print and media which are unavoidable in a traditional set-up. Further, a majority of the advertising for a website will be via social media and search engine optimization techniques which are free of cost.

In the real world, a customer goes into a retail store, drops what he or she needs into the shopping cart and then bills it. But the disadvantage in this is that the customer spends a lot of time in scouting for the desired product, pushing the shopping cart and waiting in queues for payment.

This experience is replicated in a much more enriching way in an online retail store wherein, the customers simply search for their required products and make payments via a secured payment gateway. Many websites remember customer preferences to facilitate repeat shopping and the customer service is much more personalized in such cases. Travel time and cost are saved and comparison shopping is also possible to get the best deals. Thus the positive aspect of an offline shopping experience is replicated in the online world albeit with a virtual shopping cart while all the associated hassles are eliminated.

One of the greatest success stories of online retailing is eBay.com. Founded in 1995, eBay has today expanded its capabilities by adding services, partnerships and investments. The impact of eBay's global reach is significant with a presence in over 30 countries and the company had revenues of $11.7 billion in 2011.

However it is not easy for an e-commerce website to stand out from the crowd and it requires a partnership with a good e-commerce website design and development company who have proven domain expertise.

The e-commerce website for an online retail store must be easy to navigate and offer a pleasant shopping experience to customers. The website has to win the trust and grab the attention of the customers. First impressions are always the best impressions and it is vital that the content and images presented in a website are of the highest quality. If the web pages project a professional image, prospective visitors will feel that they are dealing with a legitimate business and go on to explore the various products and services deeper. Design of payment gateways must also be done with due consideration to all security related aspects. A business must ensure that it's online and offline presence is matched perfectly to engage with present and potential customers. This is largely dependent on the skill and expertise of the e-commerce website design company.

With increasing developments in international communication platforms, more and more businesses are shifting from traditional to e-business setups. The possibilities are limitless and it needs is a trusted partner who can help you navigate the online ocean.

What Sort Of E-Commerce Business Are You?   Why Shopping Online Is Good For You   Understanding Web Traffic Conversion Rate To Improve Your Online Strategy   Setting Up an Ecommerce Store: The Basics   

How To Start On Your Online Business

You may already have one or you may be thinking of starting an online business because you are finding ways on how to live through the recession, you may want to know how to go about having an internet venture. The best things you can have at this internet age is having a website or an internet store. You need to drive people and your potential clients to your website or to your internet store. Clients/customers mean money and money means profit for you.

You have to remind yourself every single day that an online business needs to build up over time. You can't be rich quickly for any type of business. You just have to find ways on how to bounce back if your online business is not doing as well as you hope that it would be. Do hard work and give 100% commitment to your business. As long as you have your products or services, as long as your website is running and as long as you are still able to manage your online business, you have to go for it and keep the business afloat by applying your business skills.

Any type of business runs if there is a plan behind it. So you have to make goals on your business - these are the things that you want to achieve, concrete things to make you motivated to work for your business. You also have to implant permanent and long range goals for your online site. Where will it be now and where will it be next year? These are things you need to figure out and it does not have to be an extravagant move. Baby steps will get you where you want to be in your online business. Just be sure that it is a gradual and continuous process.

You must be disciplined enough to handle your business affairs. You need to create a to-do list for every day and as much as you can, finish every requirement for the day. This is discipline and if you have it, you have potential in making it big in the online business world.

You are passionate about your products, right? If you see the beauty in what you are offering, then, make it count. Let other people see what you have for them. You can drive both interested and uninterested parties to your website by reaching to their desires and to their fears too. You have to practice advertising techniques or better yet, involve yourself with people who know how to get leads. It can make your business known to your targeted market.

What Sort Of E-Commerce Business Are You?   Why Shopping Online Is Good For You   Understanding Web Traffic Conversion Rate To Improve Your Online Strategy   Setting Up an Ecommerce Store: The Basics   

What Is Mainstream And Niche PiggyBack? E-Commerce Web

Mainstream Piggy back

When you use sites like Amazon and eBay to market your website and you don't have your own website

As with the Bricks and Clicks eCommerce businesses, we've divided this sector in two. PiggyBacking is the use of someone else's infrastructure to get your products to market. That infrastructure usually includes:

Website and payment system 1. Marketing 2. Brand awareness 3. Customer database

So all the piggybacking business has to do is find the products, process, and send the orders.

The benefits to the eCommerce business can be huge:

Speed - you can get your products in front of prospective buyers within minutes, and be generating sales within hours

Investment - you don't need to build a website or a payment system - so the set-up costs are negligible

Legal - all the legal faff of selling online is dealt with by the company whose site you are piggy backing (e.g. PCI DSS, Cookie Laws, 3D Secure, etc.)

Possibly the biggest benefit is that you can use this system to build and test your business. You can work out what sells, what things need to be priced at, and you can build up a customer database ready for when you go out on your own.

- Mainstream PiggyBack

This is using sites like Amazon and eBay, where you are tapping into their huge infrastructure and customer base.

You can sell pretty much anything through these organisations, and you don't need your own website at all.

Biggest challenge for the Mainstream PiggyBack eCommerce Business: Deciding when/if you should create your own website

- Niche PiggyBacking

In several sectors, there are niche sites where you can PiggyBack. Sites like: Hotels and travel - laterooms.com, hotels.com, etc Craft and vintage - Etsy, Folksy, Boticca Books - AbeBooks

Rather than getting you in front of the world, these niche businesses get you in front of segments of consumers who want your products.

Usually, in these niche PiggyBacking arrangements, the consumer's visibility of you as the seller is far greater - so it's more obvious that they are buying from you, not from the site you are piggy backing.

In most cases, you'll also want your own website, because the products you are selling gain in value depending on the amount of information you are able to provide to the consumer. So, if you are an Etsy seller, you want to have your own blog with more information about what you do and examples of previous work and new projects. If you are a hotel, you want your own site to answer the questions you can't fit into the Laterooms formats.

And many niche piggy backers will also be selling via eBay and Amazon. Biggest challenge for the Niche PiggyBack eCommerce Business:

1. Building a good reputation on the Niche PiggyBack site 2. Choosing the right site to PiggyBack on

What Sort Of E-Commerce Business Are You?   Why Shopping Online Is Good For You   Understanding Web Traffic Conversion Rate To Improve Your Online Strategy   Setting Up an Ecommerce Store: The Basics   The Benefits of an Online Store   

Loyalty - E-Commerce Web Solutions

The longer I deal with e-commerce, the stronger I believe that the way to success in this more and more difficult branch is loyalty.

How can we know it? All we need to do is to compare the effectiveness of e-mailing to external base, which comes from 0,01% to 1,5%, to the effectiveness of e-mailing current clients, which amounts to 5-6% (Doubleclick, 2009). The effectiveness of inside e-maling has been in fact always very high. Among the advertising tools tested by Doubleclick, higher CTR was noted only in the search engines (5-15%). The next most effective advertising forms were video banners (however, only 0,5-2,65%).

Looking at CTR we are only halfway through (because there is also conversion in the target store), but still CTR decreasing with every year appears to picture the general tendency. The process of gaining a new client seems to be more and more costly. We can buy the media cheaper and cheaper, but their effectiveness is diminishing. It is experienced especially by those who were earning through partner programs several years ago and today, also in this model, earn nothing or less. In the handbook of e-commerce 2010, the authors give the costs of getting a new client with respect to the channels that have been used:

SEM - $8,5 E-mail - $10 Television - $11 Banners - $25 Press advertisements - $25 Direct Mail - $50

Currently, the cost of gaining a new client is estimated from 3 to 15 times higher than the cost of encouraging an already existing client to shop again.

Only building clients'loyalty will let one earn next year. What this study proves is that crucial for surviving in e-commerce is not necessarily getting new clients, but building their loyalty.

It seems that online businesses which build their sales only based on gaining new clients may be deemed to failure. Attracting new clients will get more and more expensive, and without caring for their loyalty, each new user will generate sales but also losses.

It creates another difficulty for the marketers. An evaluation of the marketing actions should be postponed in order to measure the number of clients returning, gained by means of a given campaign. Only these data will show the true effectiveness of marketing. Prolonging the time between action and its estimation makes data analysis and decision making difficult, unfortunately. Such an advanced assessment of the effectiveness diminishes the dynamics of sales increase. Nevertheless, it also minimizes the risk of empty sales with zero profit.

What Sort Of E-Commerce Business Are You?   Why Shopping Online Is Good For You   Understanding Web Traffic Conversion Rate To Improve Your Online Strategy   Setting Up an Ecommerce Store: The Basics   

Struts Interview Questions - How to Sort the Wheat From the Chaff?

In a modern world, virtually every organization is going to need some level of online presence. Organizations that fail to successfully get online risk being left behind.

The obvious next step is to harness the power of the many online solutions available. This is where struts comes in. The struts framework provides the perfect link between the programming required for your website and the all-important database that rests underneath. Struts is like the glue that joins the two together seamlessly, giving optimum experience for your clients, and the critical data-gathering and retention for your organization.

So how do you recruit great IT staff skilled in the struts framework?

This is a problem many organizations face with technology changing so quickly. In practical terms, you need an IT professional who really knows their stuff when it comes to struts. That can be tricky when you don't understand struts yourself.

So how do you sort the wheat from the chaff in sourcing struts interview questions? There are four main ways:

The first and most obvious way is to engage someone skilled in that field to assess the skills of your interviewees. This comes with a few caveats though: (i) you need to be able to source such a person (ii) you need to be satisfied the expert you have hired is actually skilled in that field themselves (iii) there can be a significant cost associated with this approach as IT professionals don't come cheap. The second idea would be to look for free online struts interview questions and ask them yourself at interview. There are caveats here too: (i) you need to able to find a reasonable range of questions on the web in a finite timeframe (ii) the questions must include the answers so you can check how good your interviewee really is (iii) you need to be able to trust the information provided. One of the challenges with the internet environment can be its anonymous nature. Ie. users can post free struts interview questions online with all care and no responsibility (what if they're wrong?) Thirdly, you can get someone to show you some examples of their work in struts programing. This will allow you to at least see how the IT functionality works and potentially give you ideas for your own use. However, there is always the lingering doubt as to whether the interviewee is showing you their own work or something they merely assisted with (or worse, something they were never involved with and don't know how to do). The final option is to purchase off-the-shelf interview questions prepared by an IT expert. On the downside, there will be a cost involved. On the positive side, there should be a solid guarantee provided to give you peace of mind. Further, this approach can save you a lot of time rather than you having to source the questions yourself.

Conclusion

The world is moving fast - get in quick or get left behind. Employing an IT professional skilled in struts will give the head start you need, but make sure you're employing someone you'll be happy with in the long run. To this end, the struts interview questions you ask at interview are critical. Choose carefully!

What Sort Of E-Commerce Business Are You?   Why Shopping Online Is Good For You   Understanding Web Traffic Conversion Rate To Improve Your Online Strategy   Setting Up an Ecommerce Store: The Basics   The Benefits of an Online Store   

"Fear of Loss" Gain Eyeballs to Your Offer - (Higher Conversions) With Your Marketing Campaigns

When giving value to a group of my prospects I shared the value of having a marketing plan that's runs on autopilot and I shared some extra training about affiliate marketing, and the things I shared were of high value because I never shared them before and they were helping me in my business, day in and day out, so they really enjoyed the information.

I then had a time restraint on when they could get this software and I said it would be online for 3 days and after that 3 days I was taking it off because of potential market saturation and I had to take time to monitor it. The sales doubled from what I would usually sell, compared to me just saying go and buy this, here is the link.

I made sure to actually take the product off the market on the day I said I would, because people would check back to see if I was still available!

The difference was they saw the value in having this tool and they feared the loss of not having this if they waited too long. This is one way to apply "fear of loss". Inject some entertainment into your presentation, whether it is in writing or in video. No matter how serious the subject maybe there's always some humor or entertaining snippets you can inject at appropriate times.

... Another way to apply fear of loss is to have a timer on the sales page (granted this can only be done if it's your sales page) but if you decide one day to create a sales page to sell your own product instead of being an affiliate of some someone else's product, be sure to test this out and you may find it spike your conversation to sales by 5 - 10%

Another way to apply this strategy is to limit the quantity of people who can join. I personally think this way is a bit cheesier but it works, it is also very tempting to be dishonest about how many people you actually let in so take this into consideration also.

This is especially easy to do with coaching because everyone will want your personal 1on1 time with them and their business, this can be extremely time constraining so price it realistically! This is something you can price for a really high margin because of the hours invested with each client.

If you hang on long enough and make up your mind that this will work for you then eventually everything will start falling into place, so persevere!

What Sort Of E-Commerce Business Are You?   Why Shopping Online Is Good For You   Understanding Web Traffic Conversion Rate To Improve Your Online Strategy   Setting Up an Ecommerce Store: The Basics   The Benefits of an Online Store   Got $20? Why Not Start Your Own Business?   

Honda Super Cub and 50cc Honda Cub - The Volkswagen Beetle of Motorcycles!

A very clever design: the Honda Super Cub was the combination of a moped and a scooter. It attracted many people due to its friendly and non intimidating look. People who before had felt threatened by bigger motorcycles, approached and adopted this model very quickly.

It was a versatile motorcycle and had enough power to carry two passengers or a passenger with luggage. Its large diameter tires and wide seats made the ride almost as comfortable as the touring bikes from that time.

>> Honda 50cc Cub and Super Cub FACTS

- In 1952 Honda built 7000 units of this bike which represented the 70% of the entire production of Japanese motorcycles for that year.

- Thanks to this model Honda Motorcycles were absolute market leaders during 1953 and 1954.

It's worth mentioning that those were very competitive days. There were many manufacturers competing for a very fast growing and demanding market.

- The Honda Super Cub was the equivalent of the Ford T or the Volkswagen Beetle for automobiles. As of 1992 Honda Motorcycles had built 20 million of these machines.

- The Honda 50cc Super Cub was exported to 120 countries.

As the Volkswagen Beetle, the Honda Super Cub didn't change much through time. Just take a look at the technical data below:

1959 Honda Super Cub Specifications

-> Four stroke horizontal engine. -> 49 cc of displacement -> Three speed semi-automatic gearbox. -> U-shaped frame in stamped steel. -> Weight: 155 lbs. (70 kg.) -> Speed: 35 mph (57 kph)

1992 Honda Super Cub Specifications

-> Four stroke horizontal engine. -> 49 cc of displacement -> Three speed semi-automatic gearbox. -> U-shaped frame in stamped steel. -> *Weight: 122 lbs. (55 kg.) -> *Speed: 50 mph (80 kph)

Enjoy the ride!

Daniel Levy

Honda Super Cub and 50cc Honda Cub - The Volkswagen Beetle of Motorcycles!   Two and Four Stroke Engines - Fast and Simple Answers   

Two and Four Stroke Engines - Fast and Simple Answers

Many years ago when I got hooked by motorcycles, I started to hear a lot about two and four stroke engines... It seemed there were (and there still are) strong opinions in pro and con of each of the engine types.

As Internet wasn't available, and as I was worried about other aspects or motorcycle riding back then, I left that question unanswered for a long time.

If this is your case or if your are interested in these two kind of internal combustion engines, in the next few lines I hope to give you a few fast answers and some resources to get more in depth information.

Just keep reading...

Here are some facts about two and four stroke engines:

TWO STROKE ENGINES

Cycle - Two Strokes:

1.- Compression (intake+compression)

2.- Combustion (combustion+exhaust)

Take a look at the cycle in: http://science.howstuffworks.com/two-stroke2.htm

Advantages of two stroke engines:

o The engine fires - spark plug ignites - once every revolution of the crankshaft.

o They produce twice the power than four stroke engines.

o They are much simpler than four stroke engines. Fewer parts to worry about.

Disadvantages:

o You have to mix two stroke engine oil with gas, and depending on your consumption, this might be expensive.

o They last less. Lubrication is not as efficient as in a four stroke engine with heavy oil.

o Do not use gas efficiently.

o Pollute more.

FOUR STROKE ENGINES

Cycle - Four Strokes:

1.- Intake

2.- Compression

3.- Combustion

4.- Exhaust

Take a look at the cycle in: http://science.howstuffworks.com/engine4.htm

Advantages of four stroke engines:

o Last longer than two stroke engines

o More efficient use of gas

o Pollute less than two stroke engines

Disadvantages:

o More complicated. Many more parts to worry about.

o Half as powerful as two stroke engines (for equivalent engines)

o Fires once every two revolutions.

If you want to learn more about two stroke and four stroke engines, take a look at the pages I mention above. You will find extensive information and diagrams that will solve all of your doubts.

Well I hope this gave you some basic information and helped you answer some FAQ about two and four stroke engines! :-)

Enjoy the ride!

Daniel Levy

Honda Super Cub and 50cc Honda Cub - The Volkswagen Beetle of Motorcycles!   Two and Four Stroke Engines - Fast and Simple Answers   

Honda Super Cub and 50cc Honda Cub - The Volkswagen Beetle of Motorcycles!

A very clever design: the Honda Super Cub was the combination of a moped and a scooter. It attracted many people due to its friendly and non intimidating look. People who before had felt threatened by bigger motorcycles, approached and adopted this model very quickly.

It was a versatile motorcycle and had enough power to carry two passengers or a passenger with luggage. Its large diameter tires and wide seats made the ride almost as comfortable as the touring bikes from that time.

>> Honda 50cc Cub and Super Cub FACTS

- In 1952 Honda built 7000 units of this bike which represented the 70% of the entire production of Japanese motorcycles for that year.

- Thanks to this model Honda Motorcycles were absolute market leaders during 1953 and 1954.

It's worth mentioning that those were very competitive days. There were many manufacturers competing for a very fast growing and demanding market.

- The Honda Super Cub was the equivalent of the Ford T or the Volkswagen Beetle for automobiles. As of 1992 Honda Motorcycles had built 20 million of these machines.

- The Honda 50cc Super Cub was exported to 120 countries.

As the Volkswagen Beetle, the Honda Super Cub didn't change much through time. Just take a look at the technical data below:

1959 Honda Super Cub Specifications

-> Four stroke horizontal engine. -> 49 cc of displacement -> Three speed semi-automatic gearbox. -> U-shaped frame in stamped steel. -> Weight: 155 lbs. (70 kg.) -> Speed: 35 mph (57 kph)

1992 Honda Super Cub Specifications

-> Four stroke horizontal engine. -> 49 cc of displacement -> Three speed semi-automatic gearbox. -> U-shaped frame in stamped steel. -> *Weight: 122 lbs. (55 kg.) -> *Speed: 50 mph (80 kph)

Enjoy the ride!

Daniel Levy

Honda Super Cub and 50cc Honda Cub - The Volkswagen Beetle of Motorcycles!   Two and Four Stroke Engines - Fast and Simple Answers   

Twitter Facebook Flickr RSS



Français Deutsch Italiano Português
Español 日本語 한국의 中国简体。