Business
An ecommerce site is a business. Our Management & Finance category addresses online payments, funding needs, employee issues, merchant profiles, key metrics, multichannel and omnichannel strategies, cross-border analyses, inventory management, accounting topics, sales taxes, and much more.
Amazon & Marketplaces | B2B | Cross-border Selling | Finance | Fraud Prevention | Inventory | Local Business | Payments | Shipping & Fulfillment | Staffing-
Amazon & Marketplaces
Dissecting Amazon’s 2016 Financial Performance
February 9, 2017 • Marcia Kaplan
For years when Amazon failed to show a profit, financial analysts were unperturbed. Now that Amazon is profitable, it is taking a hit for not being profitable enough and missing ...
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Business
10 Ingredients for Ecommerce Success
February 8, 2017 • Dale Traxler
There is no fast track to success in ecommerce, or any other type of business. I owned and operated a successful ecommerce company for 10 years. We sold that business, and ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
Finding your brand’s voice, and its communication channel
February 6, 2017 • Peter Keller
I launched FringeSport in 2010. It’s taken almost all of that time to find a voice for the brand and a primary channel to communicate that voice. I struggled with ...
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Amazon & Marketplaces
Using Amazon to launch NuPeptin, my new brand
February 4, 2017 • Phil Masiello
Launching a brand or ecommerce business is risky and expensive. You can do all of the research in the world, but until the rubber hits the road, you really don’t ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
3 early mistakes in building my business
January 29, 2017 • Peter Keller
When I talk to entrepreneurs who have a “side hustle” — a side venture to their full-time employment — many times they ask when to leave their “safe” job and ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
The challenge of setting up a second website
January 28, 2017 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth
There must be many businesses that launch with a specific customer target market in mind, and then receive orders from quite different groups. When I launched My Wedding Décor in April ...
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Amazon & Marketplaces
Using Amazon to build an ecommerce brand
January 27, 2017 • Phil Masiello
I love Amazon, both as a consumer and as a seller. There isn’t a more effective place to launch a brand and learn about consumer behavior than the Amazon marketplace. In ...
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Business
Legal: Protecting Against Idea Misappropriation Claims
January 17, 2017 • John Di Giacomo
Ideas are cheap. But ideas can also help an ecommerce company improve its products and services. Often a merchant’s customers or partners are in the best position to provide such ...
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Amazon & Marketplaces
For Merchants, How to Navigate Amazon’s Marketplace?
January 13, 2017 • Kerry Murdock
The increasing dominance of Amazon has many merchants scratching their heads, wondering how exactly to work with that company, and how that company will impact their own businesses. I recently spoke ...
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Finance
2016 Holiday Ecommerce Wrap-up
January 12, 2017 • Marcia Kaplan
Despite concerns that political turmoil would dampen holiday spending, ecommerce sales made a strong showing in 2016. Even with a sluggish November start, revenues increased by 11 percent over 2015,
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Amazon & Marketplaces
Implications of Amazon’s Dominance for Brands, Retailing
January 10, 2017 • Jeremy Hanks
Consumers around the world are acquainted with Amazon. I spent $3,607.08 on Amazon in 2016 alone. With 54 million U.S. consumers (64 million worldwide) in its Prime program, Amazon rivals ...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
6 Expensive Ecommerce Shipping Mistakes
January 9, 2017 • Armando Roggio
Ecommerce shipping mistakes like choosing the wrong service level, using too much packaging, or even not researching what it will cost to ship a given product can cost online retailers ...
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Amazon & Marketplaces
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Merchant Voice
The dreaded Amazon A-Z claim, part 2
January 7, 2017 • Richard Stubbings
There are still readers who are commenting on “The dreaded Amazon A-Z claim,” my post from May 2013. I will not repeat that post here. But in light of some of ...
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B2B
How to Integrate B2B Ecommerce with ERP Systems
January 4, 2017 • Lori McDonald
Integrating a B2B company’s ecommerce site with internal systems can streamline operations and simplify customers’ buying experiences. Integrations offer significant benefits, but they are often difficult to get right. One of ...
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Fraud Prevention
Using Google Analytics to Identify Fraudulent Orders
January 3, 2017 • Morgan Jones
Fraudulent transactions can occur for most any ecommerce company. Larger companies can invest in sophisticated fraud protection services. But smaller merchants sometimes attempt to detect fraud themselves. Back in 2014 we addressed ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
When an ecommerce side hustle becomes real
January 2, 2017 • Peter Keller
I’ve been talking with many budding ecommerce entrepreneurs lately. A big question I’m asked is along the lines of “when is it time to quit your day job and focus ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
For 2017: Better marketing, better products, better automation
December 30, 2016 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth
I have been using the holidays to plan a three-point strategy for 2017. Create better targeted marketing. Fine-tune my product range and pricing for better profitability. Streamline customer service with automated emails where ...
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Business
2016 Top 25: Our Most Popular Posts of the Year
December 30, 2016 • PEC Staff
As the year draws to a close, we’ve compiled a list of the 25 most popular articles published during 2016, based on the number of page views. Popular subjects included search engine optimization,
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Business
Ecommerce Packing Tips That Will Please Customers
December 29, 2016 • Armando Roggio
An online retail transaction is complete only when the shipment arrives safely at the customer’s door. No amount of website design, creative marketing, and friendly personnel will matter to your ...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
3 Shipping Policies That Anger Customers
December 23, 2016 • Pamela Hazelton
Shipping costs are a primary reason for cart abandonment. But cost is not the only shipping issue that can harm your business. What happens after a customer makes a purchase is ...
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Staffing
7 Signs Your SEO Agency Isn’t Working for You
December 23, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown
Do you wonder whether you’re really getting your money’s worth from your search engine optimization agency? It’s one of the biggest concerns with contracting any agency. These seven signs will ...
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Finance
Ecommerce Companies Sought-after Acquisition Targets
December 22, 2016 • Marcia Kaplan
2016 was a tough year for initial public offerings of venture-capital-backed ecommerce companies. However, it was a year of notable acquisitions of ecommerce companies by large retail chains and consumer ...
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Business
End-of-year Legal Checkup, for Ecommerce
December 21, 2016 • John Di Giacomo
It is that time of year — an opportunity to spend time with family, reflect on the successes and failures, and make plans for 2017. It is also time to ...
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Business
5 Security Concerns with Mobile Payments
December 20, 2016 • Ralph Tkatchuk
Shopping on smartphones and tablets is convenient for consumers and provides merchants with increased revenue streams. It also changes the payment fraud landscape. As merchants race to accept mobile transactions, fraudsters ...
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Business
U.S. Robotics Founder on Early-day Internet, Entrepreneurship
December 14, 2016 • Kerry Murdock
Without U.S. Robotics, the pioneering modem manufacturer, there arguably would not be a World Wide Web. I recently spoke with the co-founder of U.S. Robotics, Casey Cowell, to discuss that company,
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Business
For Success in Ecommerce, Figure Out the ‘What?’
December 13, 2016 • Dale Traxler
Last month, in “For Success in Ecommerce, Answer ‘Why?’,” I explored reasons for launching an ecommerce business. Understanding the “Why,” “What,” and “How” is critical to succeeding in any type ...
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B2B
Strategic Planning for B2B Ecommerce
December 6, 2016 • Lori McDonald
With the end of 2016, many B2B companies are reviewing this year’s ecommerce performance and planning for next year. All too frequently, B2B ecommerce development is short sighted. Companies frequently ask,
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Amazon & Marketplaces
No, Your Small Business Cannot Compete with Amazon
December 4, 2016 • Armando Roggio
Amazon, Walmart, Target, Costco, and other large retailers have competitive advantages over small ecommerce or brick-and-click businesses, making it difficult to compete on identical products. But this does not mean ...
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Finance
Sales Report: 2016 Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday
December 1, 2016 • Marcia Kaplan
Amidst concerns that election results would dampen November holiday spending, consumers expressed confidence in the economy by spending a total of $12.8 billion online in the U.S. during the five-day ...
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Business
November 2016 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts
November 30, 2016 • PEC Staff
Here are our 10 most popular articles for November 2016, recognizing that articles we published earlier in the month are more likely to make the list than later ones. 5 Ecommerce ...