-
Shipping & Fulfillment
Amazon Prime, ShopRunner Forcing Faster Free Shipping
November 22, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Amazon Prime and ShopRunner, which both offer online shoppers free two-day shipping with an annual membership, are changing customer expectations and forcing small and mid-sized online retailers to consider faster ...
-
Marketing & Advertising
The Most Powerful Word in Ecommerce Marketing
November 21, 2013 • Armando Roggio
The word “no” may be the most powerful marketing tool available to ecommerce owners and marketers. If used properly, the word “no” emphasizes planning, encourages making good choices, provides freedom ...
-
Staffing
How to Hire Holiday Ecommerce Help
November 15, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Booming holiday sales require online retailers to pack and ship more orders, respond to more chat sessions, emails and calls, and closely manage marketing campaigns like pay-per-click advertising or promotional ...
-
Marketing & Advertising
6 Ways to Capture Cyber Monday Sales
November 12, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Cyber Monday ecommerce sales are expected to reach $2.2 billion this year, according to a new report, making the Monday after Thanksgiving one of the most important days of the ...
-
Social Media
5 Holiday Social Media Tips for Ecommerce Merchants
November 7, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other social media sites may play an important role in how 2013’s Christmas shoppers find and buy presents on the Internet and in store, potentially making ...
-
User Experience
9 Ecommerce Lessons from NFL Online Shops
November 6, 2013 • Armando Roggio
The National Football League, its teams, and its licensees collectively sell more than $2 billion per year in merchandise, including shirts, hats, key chains, and golf tees just to name ...
-
Photography & Video
Sharing of Photos and Videos Fuels Marketing Opportunities
October 31, 2013 • Armando Roggio
As more consumers share photos and video online, marketers may find new or better ways to engage potential customers or simply be more helpful. This year, 54 percent of adults in ...
-
Shipping & Fulfillment
5 Things to Put in the Shipping Box
October 29, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Online retailers have a powerful tool for marketing to existing customers, potentially increasing sales, average order size, and profit. That tool is the shipping box merchants send to customers with ...
-
Business
7 Questions Before You Buy Software or Services
October 25, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Ecommerce entrepreneurs and managers have many options for software, marketing toolkits, and any number of retail- and marketing-related services, each of which promises to improve business operations and sales. While ...
-
Analytics & Data
How to Measure Lift from Promotion and Advertising
October 22, 2013 • Armando Roggio
In marketing, “lift” represents an increase in sales in response to some form of advertising or promotion. Monitoring, measuring, and optimizing lift may help a business grow more quickly. It is ...
-
Conversion
3 Ways to Improve Ecommerce Conversions this Month
October 17, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Banner ad retargeting, live chat, and a well-planned series of checkout abandonment emails could boost an online retailer’s conversion rates and sales immediately with a relatively small investment in development ...
-
Business
The End of Third-party Cookies Should Not Hurt Retailers
October 16, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Changes to some of the world’s most popular web browsers may impact how advertising networks and cross-site analytics tools monitor consumer behavior online. Although the changes could affect some marketing ...
-
Shipping & Fulfillment
5 Ways to Save Money on Retail Shipping
October 10, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Free or low-cost shipping is a mainstay in the online retail business. It motivates shoppers to buy more. But carriers like UPS, FedEx, and even the United States Postal Service ...
-
Payments
MasterCard Defines 5 Online Shopping Personas
October 8, 2013 • Armando Roggio
MasterCard, the payment industry leader, has defined five online shopper personas that defy traditional demographic boundaries and give online retailers a fresh way of looking at online marketing, personalization, and ...
-
Social Media
5 Ways Twitter Is Like Radio Advertising
October 3, 2013 • Armando Roggio
From a marketer’s perspective, Twitter tweets and radio promotions have a number of similarities. Thinking about what these marketing tactics have in common can reveal insights about content creation, message ...
-
Customer Retention
Understanding Consumer Search Behaviors
October 2, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Shoppers have many reasons to look for products online. They may want a particular item, seek a bargain price, or even compare similar choices. Understanding these basic consumer search behaviors ...
-
Email Marketing
7 Ideas for Better Ecommerce Marketing Emails
September 26, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Email marketing is an excellent way to engage customers and increase both site traffic and sales. Not all email messages, however, are equally effective. In 2012, 44 percent of promotional email ...
-
Customer Retention
6 Ways to Market Gift Cards Online
September 24, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Gift cards can be an effective way to increase online sales, acquire new customers, and encourage return visits. Marketing gift cards can be easy during holidays, like Valentine’s Day, Mother’s ...
-
Business
Robust User Experience May Unlock Mobile Commerce
September 20, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Online sales from mobile devices are expected to exceed $41 billion in the United States this year, representing a significant opportunity for online sellers who are able to provide a ...
-
Customer Retention
Marketing to Affluent Customers, for High Margins
September 18, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Many online retailers compete on price. But selling luxury products to relatively affluent shoppers with annual incomes above $100,000 per year is an exercise in brand building and content marketing. Shoppers ...
-
Marketing & Advertising
6 Ecommerce Predictions for the 2013 Holidays
September 12, 2013 • Armando Roggio
U.S. online sales are expected to exceed $61 billion in November and December, making the holiday shopping season vital to small and mid-sized retailers. Six trends — ecommerce growth, mobile sales,
-
Inventory
7 Tips for Good Supplier Relationships
September 11, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Good supplier relationships may lead to favorable prices, generous terms, improved availability, and even the occasional buyback. With these sorts of opportunities at stake, it can be very important for ...
-
Fraud Prevention
Apple Fingerprint Scanner May Boost Mobile Commerce
September 9, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Next generation smartphones or tablets equipped with fingerprint scanners may provide shoppers with greater security and boost both online and in-store mobile commerce. Leading mobile device makers Apple and Samsung are ...
-
Cross-border Selling
6 Tips for Selling on Marketplaces this Holiday Season
September 5, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Marketplaces like eBay, Rakuten, and Amazon attract millions of eager shoppers during the holiday season. Online retailers, even small ones, can post products to these marketplaces and earn many additional ...
-
Marketing & Advertising
4 Facts about Mobile Commerce
September 3, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Shoppers are using smartphones and tablets to make purchases and research products and prices before making a purchase, meaning that mobile may be an important channel for both earning sales ...
-
Marketing & Advertising
2013 Holiday Ecommerce Preparedness Checklist
August 29, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Online Christmas sales should top $50 billion in the United States in 2013, according to some estimates. To get your store’s fair share, be certain that your ecommerce website is ...
-
Business
4 Reasons to Think About Brand
August 28, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Developing a brand for a small ecommerce store may help otherwise hurried and busy entrepreneurs and managers do a better job of managing the business, engaging customers and potential customers,
-
Conversion
6 Ways to Encourage User Generated Content
August 23, 2013 • Armando Roggio
User submitted content like product reviews, guest blog posts, and rich media provide online retailers with excellent and marketable resources that might boost site traffic and encourage additional sales. When online ...
-
Photography & Video
Mobile Image Recognition to Revolutionize Ecommerce?
August 21, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Mobile image recognition technology identifies objects like shoes, handbags, and golf clubs in images, videos, or directly through a tablet or smartphone’s image sensor. The technology may make a new ...
-
Marketing & Advertising
3 Christmas Ecommerce Marketing Strategies
August 13, 2013 • Armando Roggio
More than eight out of ten Christmas-season shoppers will look for gifts and gift ideas online before making a purchase, creating a significant opportunity for Internet retailers. But to cash in on Christmas sales, many merchants need to begin executing coordinated marketing campaigns n...