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Article Archives (657 articles)
Numbers Should Not Dictate
They say the true measure of success for an online store is based on visitor and shopping statistics and analysis of investments for driving traffic to the site. The most common reporting method is...
Websites For The Visually Impaired
You put a lot of effort into making your website successful. You implement a strong design, you add features such as wish lists, coupon modules, gift certificates and perhaps even Flash and...
Great Ecommerce Ideas
Practical eCommerce recently asked 50 industry insiders to share a great, innovative idea that could potentially help an ecommerce firm. Here’s what ten of them had to say.
AL PASCALE
DIRECTOR...
Pay-Per-Click Advertising: Alternative PPC Venues
In the world of pay-per-click advertising, there are three well-known players: Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter. However, there are several other interesting...
What Is PCI Compliance And Should Merchants Be Concerned About It?
The major credit card issuers created PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliance standards to protect personal information and ensure security when transactions are processed using a payment card. All...
Interview: Facebook Application Developer
Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace generate huge numbers of visitors. Because of that, marketers increasingly are looking to those sites, and other social networking sites, as...
Managing Risk When Enforcing Online Rights
It never ceases to amaze me how much theft is going on right under the eyes of major companies and they don't appear to understand how to spot and deal with it. Of course it takes many forms, often...
Order Management Software: “Critical To Our Business”
Busy ecommerce merchants, those that process many orders per day, understand the importance of automating order fulfillment. It doesn’t take much time, these merchants know, to simply print an...
Email Marketing Report Card: Accepted.com
Accepted.com provides admissions consulting and application-essay-editing services that help people get into top business schools, medical schools and graduate schools. It produces a free monthly...
Quick Query: Online Educator Raquel Collins
The University of British Columbia is a pioneer in online education for working professionals. Many of its courses apply to ecommerce merchants and we’ve asked Raquel Collins, senior program leader...
Killersocks.com: Socks Go Mainstream
“True love is like a pair if socks: You gotta have two and they’ve gotta match.”
-Unknown
Brendan Gallagher and Kerren Lynch-Gallagher aren’t your typical website owners, if there is such...
Green Commerce Is Good Commerce
There are a lot of reasons why online retailers should start seeing green in a whole new way: Conserving energy and supplying environmentally sound products and services is good for the environment...
Web Analytics
Web analytics is a looking glass into the health and productivity of an online presence. Your online presence includes your website, your advertising, and any blogs, forum posts or web pages that...
Social Media Comes Of Age
Seemingly, everywhere you look these days, people are talking about social media online technologies and websites that people use to share content, opinions, insights and experiences. It's Facebook...
If Website Is Broke, Don’t Go Broke Fixing It
Traffic down? Conversions starting to wane? It could be any number of SEO issues. Finding free online tools to hone search optimization for an ecommerce site can be tough. There are a lot of them out...
Social Site Search
Fast, which may be a company best known for specializing in site search, has launched a product platform that is looking to socialize the ecommerce storefront search function. It’s called FAST...
PPC Report Card: Cheapbowlingballs.com
CheapBowlingBalls.com is a three-year-old ecommerce business that sells bowling balls and accessories. The site has Google and Yahoo! pay-per-click campaigns running with ad spend of $2,000 and...
Ten More Great Ecommerce Ideas
Practical eCommerce recently asked a number of industry insiders to share a great, innovative idea that could potentially help an ecommerce firm. Here’s what ten more of them had to say.
ERIC...
Biggest AdWord Mistakes
Practical eCommerce asked Senior Contributor and website conversion expert Mat Greenfield, founder of Conversion Results, for his take on the biggest AdWord mistakes a website could make. If your...
Usability Report Card: Lucky-devil.com
Introduction
Lucky-devil.com’s tag line succinctly states its purpose: “Presents for Kiwis in the UK and NZ” (Kiwis being the nickname for New Zealanders, not the fruit). The site “soft...
Ten Great Ecommerce Ideas
Practical eCommerce recently asked a number of industry insiders to share a great, innovative idea that could potentially help an ecommerce firm. Here’s what ten of them had to say.
SETH GODIN...
Interview: Retail Lobbyist On The Future Of Regulation
Local, state and federal governments are impacted by ecommerce activities. Local and state governments feel the loss of sales taxes when ecommerce firms don't properly collect them from their...
Be Sure To Simplify Checkout
There have been many a debate about how to siphon shoppers into the checkout process quickly, and just as expeditiously get them to the final invoice page. The words easy, simplified and ‘lightning...
Google Expands Ad Reach
In another advertising venture offline, Google recently announced an extension of its Print Ads initiative. The program, which Google originally began testing in 2006, now includes more than 225...
Interview: Oneupweb CEO On The Future Of Search
As Google continues to stake its claim as the universal search app, many may wonder if the trend will continue. Practical eCommerce asked Lisa Wehr, the CEO and Founder of Oneupweb, an integrated...
Google Audio Ads Look To Make Some Noise
Have you ever considered a radio campaign as a method to increase awareness of your organization’s online presence? Recently, Google announced that its Audio Ads are available through the AdWords...
Interview: buySAFE Founder On The Future Of Shopping Carts
There are hosted shopping carts, licensed shopping carts and custom carts. Every ecommerce merchant uses a cart, and we've asked Steve Woda, chairman and founder of buySAFE, a firm that offers...
Video: SEO Update
In February 2006, Contributor Stephan Spencer, founder and CEO of search-firm Netconcepts, critiqued the search engine optimization efforts of Discountflies.com, following a request from that...
SEO Report Card: Back40books.com
According to the site’s “About Us” page, Back 40 Books is run by back-to-nature people and the books they sell on their site are predominantly focused on issues related to that lifestyle. It...
Conversion: Experimentation Is Key
Deep down, we conversion experts carry a secret that we don't want you to know. Even though there are proven conversion principles which apply to any website, as well as many best-practices, which...
Interview: Microsoft Exec on Future of Software
Many industry experts believe software will increasingly migrate to web-based applications and away from localized, licensed products. Practical eCommerce asked a Microsoft official for his views on...
Interview: Future of Online Payments
Most ecommerce merchants rely on credit card purchases for their products and services. The industry is rapidly changing, and we asked Philip Beck, the CEO and founder of Planet Payment, for his take...
Ecommerce Facebook Applications
Facebook.com — a company that less than a year ago looked like fools for not accepting Yahoo’s bid to purchase it — has become the powerhouse of social media websites. It’s been said that...
Enterprise Zones: Ecommerce Catches A Break
For anyone who doesn’t think ecommerce is a viable part of the world economy and plays a role in job creation and tax base expansion, here’s a flash: Ecommerce businesses are now eligible, at...
Interview: Ecommerce Implications From Social Media
Without question, the popularity of social media sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter show no signs of declining. Practical eCommerce asked Web Strategist and Forrester Research Senior Analyst...
Bloglist: Andrew Goodman
Name Andrew Goodman, Founder And Principal
Company Page Zero Media
Blog Traffick.com
In Bloglist, we ask ecommerce professionals to identify their favorite blogs. For this installment, we...
Video: SEO Website Update
In January 2006, Contributor Stephan Spencer, founder and CEO of search-firm Netconcepts, critiqued the search engine optimization efforts of Balancedlifeproducts.com, following a request from that...
Holiday Sales: Make Your List, Check It Twice
1. Target The Right Buyers
Selling more effectively throughout the holidays means targeting the right person, with the right offer, at the right time. Pretty easy in theory, right? In practice...
Interview: The Future Of Credit Card Fraud
The risk of credit card fraud and identity theft remain important issues for many potential ecommerce consumers. Practical eCommerce asked John Munsell, founder and CEO of Bizzuka, a web design and...
Personalized Search: Coming For Search Engines?
Personalized search could be the next big thing in search engine marketing. In fact, we are beginning to see the shift from homogeneous search results to personalized results already, and all major...
Software Frameworks
In broad terms, a software framework is a code library that is designed to facilitate software development. The idea is that all of the tedious, low-level details of creating a web application are...
Interview: The Future Of Online Advertising
Smaller ecommerce firms frequently spend heavily on various methods of online advertising. We asked an executive with Network Solutions, Jeff Zimmerman, his views on the development of online ads....
Site Monitoring Tools Help Prevent Downtime
In order for an ecommerce site to sell products and services, it must be continuously available to online customers. Any downtime could potentially cause a retailer to lose thousands of dollars....
Interview: The Future Of Computer Hardware
What sort of computers will consumers use to purchase products from ecommerce firms? We asked this to Rob Witman, the CEO and founder of Riffware, a provider of mobile software applications and...
What Are “Tags” And What Is “Tagging?”
Since around 2004, content tagging has become more and more common due to social networking, photography sharing and bookmarking sites. Tagging is known by a few different names, such as content...
Video Tutorial: Script.aculo.us Effects
Script.aculo.us is a JavaScript framework that is built upon the wildly successful Prototype JavaScript libraries. Script.aculo.us allows web designers to create engaging user interfaces quickly and...
Product Spotlight
Create Your Own Business Cards
BusinessCards MX allows you to quickly and easily create your own custom business cards. Version 3.30 includes 400 examples of business card templates, and...
Quick Query: Filmmaker Joseph Monks And Web Accessibility
Joseph Monks is a Miami, Fla.-based filmmaker and freelance writer. His new horror film, "The Bunker," is soon to be released and details of it and his other films projects can be found at...
Legal: The Future Of The Law Of The Web
One of the compelling aspects of Web 2.0 is the leveraging of user generated content (UGC) on a much more integrated and wide-scale basis. The laws dealing with UGC are nothing particularly new. A...
Bloglist: Rand Fishkin
Name: Rand Fishkin, CEO & Co-Founder
Company: SEOmoz.org
Blog: Seomoz.org/blog
In Bloglist, we ask ecommerce professionals to identify their favorite blogs. For this installment, we asked...
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