Armando Roggio

Articles by: Armando Roggio

Armando Roggio

Armando Roggio is the longtime senior contributor to Practical Ecommerce. He's a global ecommerce authority and a practicing merchant, developer, and journalist.

Since 2008 he's written over 1,300 articles for Practical Ecommerce addressing all matters of ecommerce and presented dozens of webinars.

His previous positions include director of ecommerce for a regional retail chain and marketing publications manager at Micron Technology, a publicly-traded computer-chip manufacturer. He holds a B.A. in English Writing and Journalism from The University of Pittsburgh.

Contact Armando via email or LinkedIn. Follow his ecommerce tweets at @ecommerceboy.

User Experience
The Shopping Experience: Source 1 Medical Offers Easy Navigation, Good Service

April 7, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Each month, Practical eCommerce sends me shopping. I make a purchase from a real online merchant and create both an article and a video of the shopping experience. My goal is to report back to you about the overall checkout process, customer service experience, website aesthetics, and d...
Design & Dev Tools
Web Design Tips: Configuring Templates, Adding a Product Grid in Magento

April 1, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Adding a dynamic product grid or list to any static page in Magento is as easy as adding a few lines of code. The challenge is knowing which lines to add and where to put them. Magento is a popular open-source ecommerce platform that has been downloaded more than 750,000 times, accordi...
Staffing
Ecommerce Know-How: Selecting a Web Designer or Developer

March 31, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Often with ecommerce sites success is not a matter of how good you are but rather how good you look. Consumers often judge how professional and how trustworthy an online store is by nothing more than its aesthetics. While many online retailers are experts in their field (i.e., apparel,...
Fraud Prevention
The PeC Review: Google Alerts Helps With Reputation Management

March 30, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Google Alerts is a free service that sends users an email or RSS alert when the search engine indexes new material related to a specific keyword phrase. Although the service is still described as a beta, it has been available for years and many a savvy businessperson has used the servi...
Marketing & Advertising
The PeC Review: The SOC Exchange Offers A New, Inexpensive Selling Channel

March 24, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Selling online can take many forms and merchants can use several channels to market and sell their wares. The SOC Exchange is a new online storefront that lets merchants post and sell products for as little as $10 per year with no hidden fees. The site allows ecommerce businesses to ...
Checkout Tactics
Ecommerce Know-How: Using a Variable Pricing Model

March 20, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Selling downloadable products online presents a number of special problems for ecommerce businesses, not the least of which is demonstrating the value of an intangible product that has no physical form and no glossy packaging. Certainly, software vendors and popular sites like iTunes ha...
Customer Service
The Shopping Experience: SportsRCool Offers Exceptional Customer Service

March 19, 2009 • Armando Roggio

If you visit the "About Us" section on the SportsRCool website, you'll find a simple promise to offer the best possible products and customer service at the lowest available prices. And the company certainly delivers where customer service is concerned. Each month, Practical eCommerc...
Inventory
Ecommerce Know-How: Alternative Sources to Acquire Inventory

March 18, 2009 • Armando Roggio

While many ecommerce businesses trade only in new merchandise, there is a booming market for used, refurbished, and surplus items. Savvy ecommerce merchants can identify niche markets and use public auctions, websites, and classified ads to source valuable inventory for resale. In thi...
Social Media
The PeC Review: Elgg Lets Any Business Create an Online Community

March 17, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Elgg is an open source platform to power any kind of social media community, and it is a tool that online merchants can use to help develop a loyal flow of site traffic. Social media communities similar to Facebook and MySpace are extremely popular. For example, eMarketer, a marketin...
Cross-border Selling
The PeC Traffic Report: Asian Survey Provides Insight Into Search Habits

March 13, 2009 • Armando Roggio

From time to time it is useful to take a look at other industries to see how they are doing business and to glean tips for boosting web traffic to your own ecommerce site. In this edition of The PeC Traffic Report we'll take a look at an interesting new survey of electrical engineers i...
Business
Ecommerce Know-How: Seven Steps to Starting Your eBusiness in a Recession

March 11, 2009 • Armando Roggio

The United States and much of the world is experiencing a large and deep recession that many economists believe is far from hitting bottom. But in spite of economic uncertainty, some entrepreneurs will find the current recession an opportune time to start their own ecommerce business. ...
Platforms & Apps
Web Design Tips: Compatibility with Older Browsers

March 9, 2009 • Armando Roggio

As web technology advances and development standards evolve some web browsers are falling behind. Many lack the ability to support new technologies and file types or even provide the best available user experience. These lagging browsers put ecommerce businesses in something of a quanda...
Platforms & Apps
Shopping Carts: Survey of Merchants Confirms Fractured Market

March 5, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Respondents to a February 2009 Practical eCommerce survey collectively use more than 30 different shopping carts, an indication that there is no clear and decisive leader in the ecommerce shopping cart segment. 14.1 percent of respondents to the survey said that they use Go Daddy's Qu...
Influencers & Affiliates
The PeC Review: Google Affiliate Network is an Effective Marketing Tool

March 3, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Affiliate network marketing offers online retailers an effective, performance-based advertising channel with good conversion rates and a propensity to boosts sales. Like many affiliate programs, the Google Affiliate Network connects merchants with a network of website publishers. Aff...
Customer Retention
PeC Traffic Report: The Direct Mail Solution

March 2, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Direct mail marketing is one of the oldest forms of modern promotion, but don't let its age deceive. Mailing coupons or even catalogs to potential customers can significantly improve site traffic and sales conversions. While the exact origins of direct mail marketing are in question, t...
Amazon & Marketplaces
Ecommerce Know-How: Amazon Can Sell Your Products and Advertise Them, Too

February 26, 2009 • Armando Roggio

"Selling on Amazon" and "Product Ads on Amazon" are two services that many retail ecommerce businesses can use, taking advantage of Amazon's brand and web traffic to improve sales.
Photography & Video
The PeC Review: Zoomify Adds Product Image Details

February 24, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Zoomify is a simple to use and easy to implement tool that adds an effective zoom-and-pan feature to product images, allowing customers to see high-resolution details, potentially boosting conversion rates for online merchants. Online shopkeepers have stiff competition from tradition...
Social Media
Ecommerce Know-How: Use Facebook, LinkedIn to Promote Your Store

February 23, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Online communities like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Tangle allow members to join groups, post content, and respond to other's activity. While some marketers have tried to exploit the media, there are positive ways for online merchants to participate in linking networks and build stronger re...
Payments
Ecommerce Know-How: Understanding Your Payment Processing Statement

February 18, 2009 • Armando Roggio

While online shopkeepers are experts in their industries, they might not be expert at understanding their payment processing service or its statement, which can include adjustments, interchange charges, service charges, fees, and chargebacks. At its heart, ecommerce is about the exchan...
Code
Web Design Tips: Use CSS to Adjust Opacity

February 17, 2009 • Armando Roggio

The CSS opacity property lets web designers define how particular page elements will blend, adding both style and emphasis to important page sections. Essentially, this property allows you to adjust an element's translucency, changing the amount of diffused virtual light that seems to ...
Design & Dev Tools
The PeC Review: Audacity Makes Audio Editing a Snap

February 16, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Audacity is an excellent, free, open source audio editor that makes it a snap for ecommerce merchants to develop customer-engaging podcasts for any online store. More and more online shopkeepers are turning to rich multimedia content to inform (and even enthrall) Internet shoppers. F...
Shipping & Fulfillment
Is Five-Day USPS Delivery Coming?

February 12, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Many online retailers depend on the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to reliably deliver merchandise to customers, since the service is often less expensive than UPS (United Parcel Service) and delivers six days a week, something that UPS charges a significant premium for. But the USPS lost ...
Photography & Video
The PeC Review: The Nikon D60 Camera is a Good Value

February 11, 2009 • Armando Roggio

The Nikon D60 is a full-feature DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) camera that will capture great product pictures for any ecommerce site. The D60 has a very good graphical user interface that makes this precision optical instrument easy to understand and use. For example, when you a...
Social Media
Ecommerce Know-How: Social Media as a Marketing Tool

February 9, 2009 • Armando Roggio

An integrated social media marketing strategy can help you and your ecommerce site increase brand visibility, improve customer loyalty, and gain important insights about the markets you serve. And with the dramatic growth in social media traffic, ecommerce merchants would be smart to in...
SEO
Survey of The Month: SEO is Both Important and Misunderstood

February 9, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Ecommerce merchants overwhelming said that search engine optimization (SEO) was an active part of their marketing efforts and that they believed it accounted for a significant portion of their web traffic, but many of those same merchants identified black hat SEO tactics, like purchasin...
Checkout Tactics
PeC Traffic Report: Accept Competitors' Coupon Codes

February 6, 2009 • Armando Roggio

With the retail market suffering under the weight of a global economic recession, online shopkeepers must take every step to attract more site visitors. Accepting competitors' coupons in your own online store is a tactic that can help attract bargain-hunting customers, encourage loyalty...
Photography & Video
Ecommerce Know-How: Three Tips for Good Product Photographs

February 5, 2009 • Armando Roggio

In a brick-and-mortar store, customers can pick up a product, feel its texture, and sense its weight. These sensory inputs have an effect on a shopper's buying decisions. For online stores, achieving the same level of emotional buying excitement can be hard. One solution is to offer goo...
Code
Web Design Tips: Basic CSS for Headers

February 4, 2009 • Armando Roggio

How your site looks matters. Even subtle improvements—like using fonts or colors that compliment your theme—can have a positive effect on how consumers rate the trustworthiness of your store. According to a 2003 Stanford University study of 2,440 people, 46.2 percent of online shoppers...
Photography & Video
The PeC Review: Canon’s Rebel XSi DSLR for Taking Product Images

February 2, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Canon's Rebel XSi is a 12.2 megapixel DSLR camera that is both inexpensive and powerful. It features relatively large pixels, a very functional auto focus, and several excellent presets that together make it a very good choice for capturing do-it-yourself product photos. There is no ...
Email & Text Marketing
The PeC Review: MailChimp is a Full-Featured Email Campaign Manager

January 28, 2009 • Armando Roggio

MailChimp offers a complete email marketing solution that is simple and inexpensive enough for small businesses but powerful enough for fairly large Internet merchants with sales of $5 million per year or more. According to its staff, MailChimp has over 60,000 users. It manages lists...