Design & Development
The nuts and bolts of an ecommerce site are design and development. We address design innovation and trends — including layouts, colors, photography, logos, video, and more. We explain the basics of code — HTML, CSS, JavaScript — as well as platforms, themes, plugins, open source, and related topics.
Code | Design & Dev Tools | Platforms & Apps | Schools & Resources | Typography & Fonts | User Experience-
Code
HTML5: The Future of Online Video?
June 9, 2010 • Justin Foster
If you pay attention to online video, chances are you’ve heard of HTML5. It could be the next big technology that will change online video as we know it. Apple’s Steve Jobs famously stated several weeks ago, in his "Thoughts on Flash" letter, that Apple prefers HTML5 video to Adobe’s F...
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Design & Development
May Survey Results: Analytics, Gmail Most Popular Google Products
June 8, 2010 • Nic Murdock
A monthly survey conducted by Practical eCommerce polled readers about the importance and trustworthiness of Google products. The May 2010 survey asked four questions about Google products, with a comment section for each response. Readers who completed the survey, and then provided us...
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Design & Development
Ten Steps to Migrate Your Site to a New Ecommerce Platform
June 7, 2010 • Michael Stearns
A milestone in the growth of your ecommerce business is when you realize you have outgrown your current web platform and need to upgrade. Maybe you nailed it the first time around and picked a terrific, scalable platform. But oftentimes, first-time site owners opt for the low cost, set-...
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Design & Development
Mobile Payment Processors Extend Reach with AppNinjas
June 2, 2010 • PEC Staff
The rise of mobile devices is affecting ecommerce. More consumers are using these devices to shop online and more merchants are using them to collect payments. We recently spoke with two experts in the credit card business about processing payments on mobile devices. They are John Waldr...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: King Cart Services
May 28, 2010 • Kate Monteith
This week, we'll hear from Marshall Dudley, the founder and owner of King Cart Services. The company is based in Knoxville, Tenn., and its ecommerce platform currently serves roughly 1,000 users. We'll also hear from a customer, A. P. Jones of All Predator Calls, an online store based in St. George, Utah that sells a variety of wildlife calls and related hunting accessories.
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Design & Dev Tools
The PEC Review: Buffalo Technology’s HD-HX2.0TU3 External Hard Drive
May 24, 2010 • Armando Roggio
One of the computer industry's greatest apocryphal tales has Microsoft founder Bill Gates telling a newspaper in 1981 that "640K is more memory than anyone will ever need." The story is false, and Gates has been adamantly denying the quote for nearly three decades. But false as it is,...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: CashCowCart
May 21, 2010 • Kate Monteith
This week, we'll hear from Bernard Kohan, chief business development officer and co-founder of Comentum, a software development company. It offers a hosted ecommerce solution called CashCowCart that serves around 2,000 online merchants, as well as a customized ecommerce solution called Comentum Custom Cart. We'll also hear from a CashCowCart customer, Alec R. Lopez, CEO
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: LiveMerchant by BB Design
May 14, 2010 • Kate Monteith
There are more than 500 online shopping carts. And each week we feature one, interviewing both the cart's developer and a customer. "Cart of the Week" is not a review or an evaluation, but rather an opportunity to learn about a shopping cart from the people who build it and use it. Thi...
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Business
Ecommerce Video Production
May 11, 2010 • Armando Roggio
Product videos have been shown to increase conversions rates on ecommerce sites. Online retailer eBags famously tested some 210 product videos on its site beginning in 2007. The test compared conversion rates for products with video against conversion rates for the same products withou...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: Veracart
May 7, 2010 • Kate Monteith
This week, we'll hear from Joel Otterstrom, co-founder and CEO of Veracart, a software development company based in Salt Lake City, Utah. According to Otterstrom, Veracart currently serves around 2,300 customers. We'll also hear from a Veracart user, Kamien E. Carter. She is product development manager for Flower Patch, a flower and gift shop based in Salt Lake City that uses the cart to process online sales.
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Code
What Is HTML 5?
May 5, 2010 • Joseph C. Dolson
Editor's Note: Ecommerce merchants use complex technologies in their businesses. A working, "need to know" understanding of these technologies can help merchants. To address this, we've launched our "Need to Know" series, whereby we'll address complex topics in a manner that can benefit...
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Business
The PeC Review: AVG LinkScanner Identifies Malicious Code
May 3, 2010 • Armando Roggio
Seventy-one percent of websites that contain malicious code or malware are actually legitimate sites that have been compromised, according to web and data security firm, Websense. What's more, 61 percent of the top 100 sites on the Internet were infected at some point in 2009. Malware ...
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Design & Development
Need a Five-Pound Gummy Bear? Try Vat19.com
April 30, 2010 • Kerry Murdock
An ecommerce merchant in St. Louis launched his business in 2006 after having written the programming code for his own shopping cart. That business, called Vat19, sells offbeat gifts (such ...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: AAcart
April 30, 2010 • Kate Monteith
There are more than 500 online shopping carts. And each week we feature one, interviewing both the cart's developer and a customer. "Cart of the Week" is not a review or an evaluation, but rather an opportunity to learn about a shopping cart from the people who build it and use it. Thi...
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Design & Development
Mobile Strategy: Use Same Content, But Optimize Its Appearance
April 29, 2010 • Brendan Gibbons
Merchants have options when it comes to mobile optimization. Although W3C has released a list of best practices for the mobile web, there are many different ways to implement them. Experts sometimes recommend developing a separate mobile-optimized site with different content and servi...
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Design & Development
How to Identify Most-Used Browsers, Operating Systems, Screen Resolutions
April 28, 2010 • Louis Camassa
In "Website Compatibility Testing Made Simple," published last week here at Practical eCommerce, I explained the process for site operators, such as ecommerce merchants, to continually ensure their websites render properly across all common browsers, operating systems and screen resolut...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: osCMax
April 23, 2010 • Kate Monteith
This week, we'll hear from Michael Sasek, founder and lead developer of osCMax shopping cart software. The company’s main offices are in Phoenix, Ariz., with development teams in both the U.S. and the U.K. Sasek estimates that osCMax software currently has 10,000 to 12,000 users, as well as many more privately labeled carts that use osCMax as a base. We'll also hear from an osCMax customer, Mark Fleeson, technical director
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Design & Development
Website Compatibility Testing Made Simple
April 21, 2010 • Louis Camassa
A frequently overlooked aspect of managing an ecommerce website is testing the appearance of that site across different browsers and screen resolutions. For example, your website might render beautifully in Internet Explorer 7, but what does it look like in Safari on the Mac? What about Firefox, or in 1024 x 768 resolution?
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: GravityMarket
April 16, 2010 • Kate Monteith
This week, we'll hear from Jody K. Hartwig, director of e-business for Acumium LLC. The company is based in Madison, Wis., and it produces GravityMarket, an ecommerce platform. According to Hartwig, more than 100 websites have been built on GravityMarket since the cart was first developed. We'll also hear from a GravityMarket customer, Michael Feiman
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Design & Development
Image Formats: What’s the Difference Between JPG, GIF, PNG?
April 15, 2010 • Drew Coffin
Editor's Note: Ecommerce merchants use complex technologies in their businesses. Merchants do not always need an expert's knowledge of these technologies, but a working, "need to know" understanding can help. To address this need, we've launched our "Need to Know" series, whereby we'll ...
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Design & Development
Payment Provider Seeks Simplification
April 14, 2010 • PEC Staff
The process of collecting and processing online payments is confusing. There are many parties involved and the fees can be difficult to decipher. Adyen is one company that hopes to clear up the process and to simplify payments from international customers, too. Peter Caparso is presiden...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: ozEcommerce Pro
April 9, 2010 • Kate Monteith
There are more than 500 online shopping carts. And each week we feature one, interviewing both the cart's developer and a customer. "Cart of the Week" is not a review or an evaluation, but rather an opportunity to learn about a shopping cart from the people who build it and use it. Thi...
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Design & Dev Tools
Demandware Launches Marketplace to Speed Integrations
April 8, 2010 • Armando Roggio
Connecting and integrating an ecommerce platform with third-party services and solutions can be one of the most costly and time consuming parts of any ecommerce site development. This week, ecommerce platform maker Demandware launched a new marketplace called LINK, which gives develope...
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Design & Development
March Survey Results: Ecommerce Merchants Not Prepared for Mobile
April 7, 2010 • Kate Monteith
The use of mobile devices for Internet access is growing rapidly. This got us wondering how our readers are responding to the mobile boom, and how many ecommerce firms are truly prepared to meet the challenges of mobile commerce. Survey results indicate that practically everyone uses mo...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: CompleteCart by Thin Air Media
April 2, 2010 • Kate Monteith
This week, we'll hear from Marc Terrien, owner and president of Thin Air Media Solutions. The company is based in Crested Butte, Colo., and offers web development and design services and software, including its CompleteSite content management system and the online shopping cart module known as CompleteCart. Terrien estimates that the cart currently has around 30 users.
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Design & Development
NetSuite’s View of Mobile Commerce
March 30, 2010 • PEC Staff
Mobile commerce will likely affect most every ecommerce merchant in one way or another. NetSuite is a leading ecommerce platform with many ecommerce customers. Malin Huffman is a principal product manager at NetSuite in charge of the company's mobile efforts, and he discusses NetSuite'...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: 1AutomationWiz
March 26, 2010 • Kate Monteith
This week, we'll hear from Don Schnure, president of 1AutomationWiz.com. The company is located in St. Louis, Mo., and it provides online shopping cart software called 1AutomationWiz. According to Schnure, roughly 7,000 merchants currently use the cart. We'll also hear from a 1AutomationWiz customer, Kim Wilson.
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Business
What Is a Denial-of-Service Attack?
March 25, 2010 • Kate Monteith
Nothing is more frustrating for ecommerce merchants than website downtime. Untold sales may be lost while customers are unable access the merchant's website. But, occasionally it is not the fault of a hosting company, but of hackers who have perpetrated a distributed denial of service a...
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Code
Five Handy HTML Tags To Help Your Ecommerce Business
March 24, 2010 • Armando Roggio
There is an analogy between driving a car and operating an ecommerce business. With a car, you need to know a few basic things, like how to steer, accelerate, and brake. Likewise, the manager or owner of an online retail business really only needs to know how to process orders, manage customer service, and keep up with the accounting.
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: BigCommerce
March 19, 2010 • Kate Monteith
This week, we'll hear from Mitchell Harper, co-founder and product marketing manager for Interspire, the company behind BigCommerce online shopping cart. Interspire's North American headquarters are in Austin, Texas, with engineering teams located in Sydney, Australia and London, England. "BigCommerce is the SaaS [software as a service] version of our licensed ecommerce platform