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.

Product Pages
Essential Elements of an Ecommerce Product Page

September 1, 2020 • Armando Roggio

The elements of an ecommerce product detail page should work together to help shoppers make sound buying decisions. Each element — prose description, a list of features, product photos, videos — should tell part of an item's story.
Google Ads
What Is Performance Marketing?

August 26, 2020 • Armando Roggio

With performance marketing, businesses pay only when they get results. While it doesn't necessarily guarantee a good return on investment, performance marketing is often a contributor to success for ecommerce merchants.
Marketing & Advertising
OTT Ads Are an Opportunity for Established Retailers

August 25, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Streaming commercials — which are called over-the-top (OTT) ads because most cable and streaming boxes used to sit on top of televisions — can provide a level of audience targeting that is similar to search engine marketing, social media advertising, and affiliate marketing.
Marketing & Advertising
Live Streaming Can Drive Affiliate Revenue

August 19, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Live streaming is a popular way to sell products in 2020, thanks, in part, to how the pandemic has impacted retailing. But within this broader trend, at least a few entrepreneurs are finding a new niche promoting products to social media friends and followers.
Payments
‘Payment Request API’ to Streamline Ecommerce Checkouts, Improve Security

August 17, 2020 • Armando Roggio

A standard application programming interface is helping to eliminate website checkout forms and improve the ecommerce experience on desktop, laptop, and mobile devices. Ecommerce businesses that adopt the approach early could gain a competitive advantage.
Fraud Prevention
Share Customer Data Anonymously to Combat Fraud

August 11, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Ecommerce fraud prevention depends on good data. That data can come from payment card providers, credit bureaus, address listings, and, more recently, other merchants.
Business
Holiday Selling without the Crowds

August 9, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Pandemic-induced social distancing, reduced hours of operation, and even continued lockdowns and closures could dramatically change Christmas shopping behaviors in 2020, requiring retailers to find new ways to serve holiday shoppers and generate sales.
Content Marketing
5 Content Marketing Ideas for September 2020

August 6, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Content marketing is the act of creating, publishing, and promoting articles, podcasts, and videos with the intent of attracting, engaging, and retaining customers. Here are five content marketing ideas your business can try in September 2020.
Local Business
The First Steps in Adding Ecommerce to a Brick-and-mortar Store

August 2, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Brick-and-mortar retail businesses are turning toward ecommerce to generate revenue — online and click-and-collect. As they make this digital transformation, those merchants will likely have questions about ecommerce platforms, themes, and design. While all of these are important, a company's focus should be on products and marketing first, in my experience.
Content Marketing
Inject New Life into Old Content

July 30, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Content marketing is a long game. A business must publish regularly over an extended period. This inevitably means that some of the content created will get old or outdated. Fortunately, a marketer can inject new life into old content, making it valuable again.
Content Marketing
The Hero-Hub-Help Content Marketing Strategy

July 27, 2020 • Armando Roggio

A content marketing strategy should identify what to publish and when to publish it. When a content marketing goal includes growing an engaged audience, YouTube's venerable hero-hub-help framework has much to offer.
Platforms & Apps
Evolving Tech Stack Enables High Performance Ecommerce

July 22, 2020 • Armando Roggio

The technologies powering the web and mobile applications never stop evolving. Each new phase creates opportunities for businesses. The latest iteration is the expansion of so-called edge network capabilities, which help online merchants improve performance and user experience. Both are fundamental to Google's new "web vitals" initiative.
Marketing & Advertising
Live Streaming Connects with Pandemic-driven Consumers

July 19, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Small and mid-sized ecommerce businesses can use live streaming to sell like QVC and HSN, introducing and demonstrating products as well as providing helpful content. And deploying live streaming now can take advantage of consumers' new, pandemic-driven buying habits.
Business
Covid-19 Accelerates Retail’s Digital Transformation

July 16, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Retail's digital transformation, which is the concept of using new digital technology to address business performance, has been ongoing for decades. Covid-19 has forced retailers to invest more money into new technologies and implement those technologies much more quickly than otherwise planned.
Shipping & Fulfillment
USPS Woes Could Impact Ecommerce SMBs

July 12, 2020 • Armando Roggio

The United States Postal Service reported a $4.5 billion loss in the fiscal 2020 second quarter, which ended on March 31. Democratic members of Congress have proposed investing $25 billion to help the USPS. Whatever happens to the agency will likely impact small and mid-sized ecommerce companies.
Design & Dev Tools
Drag-and-drop Ecommerce Tools Are on the Rise

July 8, 2020 • Armando Roggio

For years, ecommerce platform providers have sought to make it easy for SMBs to present and sell products online. Current offerings from Shogun, BigCommerce, and Wix demonstrate that ease-of-use and lack of coding are still in demand.
Business
Letting Workers Go Because of Covid-19

July 5, 2020 • Armando Roggio

During the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, many retailers have furloughed or laid off workers. While this is never an easy process, good communication may help make it relatively less emotional and painful for everyone involved.
Content Marketing
5 Content Marketing Ideas for August 2020

July 2, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Content may well be one of the most powerful forms of modern marketing. When a business creates content, publishes that content, and then promotes it, it has the potential to attract, engage, and keep customers. What follows are five content marketing ideas your business can use in August 2020.
Marketing & Advertising
What’s Your Plan for Measuring Marketing Outcomes?

June 25, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Once it defines the objectives of its business or marketing campaign, an ecommerce company should decide how to measure outcomes. Planning and documenting how to measure outcomes should include specific metrics in Google Analytics.
Design & Dev Tools
3 Excellent Performance Testing Tools from Google

June 24, 2020 • Armando Roggio

How quickly a web page loads and becomes interactive is closely related to user experience and conversions, and thus sales and profit. Google has three helpful testing tools to understand how well a website is performing and, also, how to improve it.
Business
Will the Pandemic Impact Christmas 2020 Ecommerce Sales?

June 21, 2020 • Armando Roggio

The coronavirus pandemic that shuttered much of the worldwide economy in the first half of this year may yet impact Christmas 2020. In this post, I'll address a few coronavirus-related scenarios and offer suggestions for how ecommerce merchants can assess the potential impact on their company's holiday sales.
Marketing & Advertising
A 5-step Plan for Video Production and Distribution

June 18, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Video content marketing starts with goal setting, understanding your audience, identifying topics, and creating a schedule — often in the form of an editorial calendar. Once you've completed these first steps, it is time to produce, edit, and publish your videos.
Content Marketing
A 4-step Plan for Video Marketing Success

June 15, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Videos are a potent way for ecommerce businesses to build lasting, profitable customer relationships. What follows are four steps — before you film — for successful video marketing.
Email & Text Marketing
Accelerate Ecommerce Marketing with the RFM Model

June 10, 2020 • Armando Roggio

The recency, frequency, and monetary model lets ecommerce marketers identify and market to specific consumer groups based on their transactional behavior. Ecommerce merchants have many reasons to segment customers and prospects.
Conversion
Store Closures, Slow Shipping Could Drive Retail Prices Lower

June 7, 2020 • Armando Roggio

The coronavirus pandemic could lead to much lower retail prices for some categories, as store closures and product returns caused by slow shipping lead to an inventory glut. The problem might be divided into two broad categories.
Content Marketing
5 Content Marketing Ideas for July 2020

June 4, 2020 • Armando Roggio

The coronavirus pandemic will likely influence July 2020 activities. But that shouldn't stop you from publishing seasonally appropriate content marketing. Here are five content marketing ideas your business can try in July 2020.
Analytics & Data
Understanding ‘Sessions’ in Google Analytics

June 1, 2020 • Armando Roggio

The word "session" in an English dictionary reads something like "a period of time devoted to a particular activity." It could be, for example, an individual working on a specific task or goal. Google Analytics uses the term "session" in a similar manner.
Photography & Video
Even in 2020, 360-degree Product Photos Boost Conversions

May 27, 2020 • Armando Roggio

A long-time ecommerce conversion tactic — 360-degree product photography — is making an appearance on major retail marketplaces, large B2B sites, online furniture stores, and automobile marketplaces, indicating, perhaps, that it still represents an opportunity to increase sales.
Social Media
Facebook Shops Are an Ecommerce Game Changer

May 22, 2020 • Armando Roggio

When the world's largest social media network decides to become an ecommerce platform, you can bet it will impact the industry and make a difference long-term. On May 19, 2020, Facebook added ecommerce Shops to Facebook business pages and Instagram business profiles.
Business
Building Community with a Remote Team

May 21, 2020 • Armando Roggio

A remote workforce has always had its advantages, such as access to a large pool of top-notch talent. But the coronavirus pandemic has forced many companies accustomed to physical offices to start working remotely.