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-
Business
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Merchant Voice
Does your company have a soul?
April 9, 2016 • Eric Bandholz
When they hit a plateau on the growth of their business, entrepreneurs often look at ways to initiate a spark. One of the biggest things that companies overlook is the ...
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Cross-border Selling
Ecommerce in Australia: Cross-border Shopping Common
April 7, 2016 • Gagan Mehra
According to National Australia Bank, online retail spending in Australia increased by 10 percent, to $17.6 billion, in 2015. This compares to roughly $562 billion for China, the country with ...
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Payments
Credit-card-processing Negotiating Mistakes, Part 2: Understanding the Offer
April 5, 2016 • Phil Hinke
This is the second installment of a 2-part series on common mistakes I see from merchants, when they negotiate the rates and fees of credit-card-processing providers. In “Part 1: Terminology,
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Business
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Merchant Voice
Lessons from a corner shop closing down
April 4, 2016 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth
You’ve likely seen a few brick-and-mortar shops go out of business in recent times. I recently saw hastily-printed sheets at local ice cream store — called Lick Me — thanking ...
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B2B
7 Mistakes That Will Kill Your B2B Ecommerce Launch
March 23, 2016 • Lori McDonald
I’ve worked in the B2B ecommerce industry for 18 years. I’ve seen it all — good and bad. Here are seven mistakes that often cause failures in B2B ecommerce launches. 1.
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Business
Sales Tax: How to Collect, Process for Your Online Store
March 21, 2016 • Armando Roggio
Sales tax is relatively straightforward for brick-and-mortar retail stores. A shopper goes into a store, buys something, and pays the sales tax for the state, county, and city where the store ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
The evolution of FringeSport’s KPIs
March 16, 2016 • Peter Keller
How do you run your business? What numbers are meaningful, and on what intervals do you review them? When FringeSport was a side project, I mainly looked at revenue and gross ...
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Business
Search-marketing Insights from Connect Search Engine Watch Conference
March 15, 2016 • Richard Sexton
I recently attended the Connect Search Engine Watch Conference in Miami. The conference covered two tracks — “Engage with Organic” and “Innovate with Paid” — over two days. I spent ...
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Business
How to select a new ecommerce platform
March 10, 2016 • Kenny Kane
In “Why change ecommerce platforms?,” my post last month, I discussed my decision to switch ecommerce platforms — from Volusion to Bigcommerce — in the fall of 2013. I made ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
Pop-ups bad for the web, bad for business
March 9, 2016 • Eric Bandholz
Our company is approached frequently by app makers that are selling pop-ups, or modals, for our ecommerce site. The pitch is usually the same: Use our pop-up to get more ...
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Cross-border Selling
Ecommerce in South Korea: Aggressive Discounting, Rewards
March 9, 2016 • Gagan Mehra
South Korea is the seventh largest retail ecommerce market in the world and the third largest in Asia Pacific, after China and Japan. It boasts the fastest Internet speeds in ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
A tale of two suppliers
March 9, 2016 • Richard Stubbings
The attitude of some suppliers amazes me. Recently, we have been going to trade shows to find new products. We have been looking for quality, niche suppliers that have higher-value ...
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Inventory
5 Ecommerce Inventory Spring-cleaning Tips
March 2, 2016 • Armando Roggio
As spring arrives, many online retailers find that they need to change products or product lines — winter coats won’t sell as well in April or May. Last season’s fashions, innovations,
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Business
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Merchant Voice
Entrepreneur, founder, C.E.O.?
February 24, 2016 • Peter Keller
What is a C.E.O.? If you founded and are running a start-up, when should you really take C.E.O. as a title? These are questions I’ve struggled with over the last year.
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Business
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Merchant Voice
For PPC ads, filter by demographic data
February 23, 2016 • David Sasson
Driving traffic is at the heart of building a successful ecommerce business. There are so many retailers and so many options for consumers that you must continually find new ways to ...
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Cross-border Selling
Ecommerce in Japan: Marketplaces Dominate
February 23, 2016 • Gagan Mehra
Amazon is no longer the world’s largest ecommerce site in terms of number of visitors. That position now belongs to Taobao, the online marketplace, from China. Ecommerce is growing quickly ...
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Local Business
10 Local Business Customer Rating and Review Platforms
February 22, 2016 • Paul Chaney
Want to get more customer reviews? There are plenty of reasons to do so. They help build brand awareness, increase credibility, and improve search rankings. Plus, they let you know the customer's mindset about your business, and its products or services.
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Business
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Merchant Voice
Could a new slogan increase sales?
February 19, 2016 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth
My Wedding Decor has gradually evolved in the 10 months since I launched the site. Four weeks ago I made two simple changes that may have been responsible for increasing my ...
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B2B
Using Product Feeds for B2B Ecommerce
February 18, 2016 • Lori McDonald
A data feed is a structured file that provides information to another system. Typical formats are XML, CSV, and TXT files. Think of it like a data export from your ...
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Local Business
12 Search Terms Local Business Owners Should Know
February 18, 2016 • Kathleen Fealy
During a recent visit to a local flower shop, I spoke with the owner about online marketing strategies, objectives, and tactics. She actively participates in social media marketing but finds search marketing too intimidating due to so much industry jargon.
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Business
Why change ecommerce platforms?
February 16, 2016 • Kenny Kane
One of the best parts of being an ecommerce consultant and storeowner is corresponding with all the amazing entrepreneurs who have found their niche and disrupted it. This time of ...
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Payments
Credit-card-processing Negotiating Mistakes, Part 1: Terminology, Exits
February 15, 2016 • Phil Hinke
This is the first article in a 2-part series on common mistakes I see merchants make when negotiating rates and fees or analyzing the offers from different credit-card-processing providers. Credit-card-processing Negotiating ...
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Local Business
Understanding Google Local Search, with Mike Blumenthal
February 12, 2016 • Web Marketing Today
Google local search should be an integral part of any local business marketing strategy. To help business owners understand how best to maximize its value, Web Marketing Today interviewed Mike Blumenthal, a recognized industry expert on Google local search trends and practices.
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Local Business
4 Affordable Brand Monitoring Tools for Local Businesses
February 11, 2016 • Kristine Wirth
Brand monitoring is a way to observe what people are saying about your business on the Internet. One of the better ways to keep track of this information is to use a brand monitoring tool.
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B2B
How to Attract B2B Buyers to Ecommerce
February 11, 2016 • Marcia Kaplan
Today’s B2B buyers have fewer constraints than those of 10 years ago. To decrease costs, even enterprise companies are streamlining their purchasing processes, including increased online purchasing without the traditional ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
What’s the future for smaller ecommerce retailers?
February 10, 2016 • Richard Stubbings
With the growing dominance of Amazon and Ebay for everyday consumer items, what future is there for the smaller ecommerce business? Amazon and Ebay both emphasize price. Many shoppers on those sites ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
Beardbrand’s photography process
February 9, 2016 • Eric Bandholz
Photography should be a high priority for ecommerce merchants. There are tons of guides on how to take great photographs. This article won’t be one of those. Instead, I hope ...
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Business
How to Set Retail Discounts, for Ecommerce
February 8, 2016 • Armando Roggio
One-day sale, holiday sale, Presidents’ Day sale, or just about any sale you can imagine: Online retailers frequently offer top-grade products at a discount, broadcasting these specials via email or ...
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Local Business
6 Local Business Online Marketing Essentials
February 8, 2016 • Paul Chaney
There are many online marketing avenues that a local small business could take, but which are essential and stand the best chance of ensuring success? After all, business owners have a limited amount of time to pursue marketing activities, so they need to focus on those that are most productive.
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Local Business
10 Great Local Marketing Ideas for February 2016
February 5, 2016 • Web Marketing Today
Each month, Web Marketing Today gathers advice from marketing experts, to help local businesses market online with greater impact. This month, we focus on real estate and share ten great ideas from Realtors and other industry-related marketing professionals.