2007-01-22T12:28:11-07:00 Practical Ecommerce info@practicalecommerce.com http://www.practicalecommerce.com/ Copyright 2007 Confluence Publishing DBA Practical Ecommerce http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/398/Can-VoIP-Help-My-Business 2007-01-22T12:28:11-07:00

Major telecommunication companies and start-ups alike are trying to establish themselves in the rapidly expanding VoIP marketplace. That hasn't escaped the notice of many people within the Internet telephone business, who anticipate 2007 could be a banner year for the technology. Top 5 Things to Consider about VoIP 1. Decide your ultimate telephony strategy. If you run a large business and are looking to save a lot of money, then VoIP may not be for you. The necessary hardware and broadband investment may exceed what you're currently paying for traditional service. On the other hand, if you're a small business, with only 1-3 phones needed, you may be an ideal candidate. VoIP gives you extensive phone features not available with traditional service. 2. Think features, not necessarily savings. As mentioned above, the diverse (and some would say "amazing") range of features available to VoIP customers is truly revolutionary; however, it may not save you all that much on your...

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/363/Lowering-Cart-Abandonment 2006-12-01T00:00:00-07:00

With shopping cart abandonment at a high level, ecommerce owners continue to look for ways to motivate shoppers to complete the checkout process. Research from Shop.org indicates shoppers abandon their cart during checkout more than 75 percent of the time. Imagine 75 percent of the grocery carts half full at the local supermarket abandoned in the aisles. In fact, an IconMediaLab study notes the average online retailer fails to convert 97 percent of online customers to online buyers. While studies conflict as to the actual percentage of online shopping carts abandoned by consumers, nearly all experts agree - online retailers have much to improve upon in this area. Online sales are the Niagara Falls of shopping trends today. According to a comScore report, in 2005, online sales totaled $81.6 billion, up 24 percent from $65.8 billion in 2004. When you include other venues of online revenue, such as travel, the numbers jump significantly, to $143.2 billion in 2005, a 22 percent...

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/327/Why-Your-Business-Should-Be-Blogging 2006-10-23T08:39:55-07:00

Whereas letter writing was the primary method of communicating with friends, family, heads of state, and businesses 150 years ago, today's blogs have become a major means of interpersonal and mass communication. Before there was telephone or TV or Internet, people actually enjoyed letter writing. Others recognized the necessity of communication and disciplined themselves for it. Today's high-speed, want-it-now, Internet-savvy world citizens crave information. They are also craving authenticity and relevance from every form of media that they listen, watch or read. That's where a blog may be just what your company needs to reconnect with your customers and the world. "Blog" is short for web log. It is like an online journal but more. It provides you with an extremely easy way to communicate your thoughts, opinions, announcements, ideas, events, etc., to a huge segment of people through the Internet. Blogs typically have the option of enabling "comments" for each entry that is...