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.

Shipping & Fulfillment
Q&A: ‘Can We Reduce Shipping Costs?’

January 29, 2020 • Armando Roggio

If you've ever wondered whether your ecommerce store could afford free shipping, or if you have been frustrated by poor shipping estimates at checkout, this post is for you. I'll address four common ecommerce shipping questions.
Business
DuckDuckGo Attracts Privacy-conscious Shoppers

January 24, 2020 • Armando Roggio

DuckDuckGo is a general-purpose search engine that shows results from its own index and about 400 trusted sources. It does not collect or share users' personal information. This single fact could make it popular with tech-savvy, privacy-conscious consumers.
Marketing & Advertising
Done Right, Customer Profiles Drive Revenue

January 23, 2020 • Armando Roggio

A good customer profile relies on objective information to describe shoppers, often segmenting them around the reasons they choose a company or product. In this post, I'll offer tips for building and using customer profiles.
Product Pages
Customize Shopify Product Pages with Metafields

January 17, 2020 • Armando Roggio

The standard description field on a Shopify product detail page is a monolithic block of content. Adding different sections to this block is possible, but the process is not ideal.
Conversion
Site Search Tested across 10 Retailers

January 14, 2020 • Armando Roggio

The search engines found on leading retail websites easily understand common misspellings, butchered brand names, and typographical errors. Your company's site search should too.
Marketing & Advertising
Essential Tasks for a New Ecommerce Marketing Manager

January 9, 2020 • Armando Roggio

There are at least seven tasks that could help a new ecommerce marketing manager during, say, the first 60 days. A new hire who tackles these tasks is likely to enjoy a successful relationship with the company.
Content Marketing
5 Content Marketing Ideas for February 2020

January 5, 2020 • Armando Roggio

To attract and engage customers in February 2020, develop content that praises your products, helps shoppers along the buying journey, or connects sporting events, movies, or history with your business.
Analytics & Data
Using COUNTIF, COUNTIFS in Google Sheets to Sort, Analyze Data

December 31, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Whether you're researching keywords, reviewing lead sources, or analyzing customer attributes from a CRM export, Google Sheets' COUNTIF and COUNTIFS formulas can help. Recently, a multichannel retailer wanted to analyze five years' worth of lead and conversion data.
Platforms & Apps
Are Big Changes Coming to the Ecommerce Stack?

December 22, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Headless content management systems and site generators are driving a new content-centric web. The changes could be coming to ecommerce, at scale, very soon.
Google Ads
How SEM Agencies Help Ecommerce Businesses

December 19, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Search engine marketing is an important sales driver for the ecommerce industry. But as an online business grows or faces new competitive challenges, it may need outside marketing expertise. What follows are several good reasons to consider an SEM agency.
Business
How Do You Define Ecommerce Success?

December 12, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Entrepreneurs can feel inadequate — stressed, overworked, and defeated. But how you feel about your business — good or bad — depends on the rules you use to define success. You may be setting yourself up for failure.
Business
Apply a ‘Blue Ocean Strategy’ for Objective Business Decisions

December 11, 2019 • Armando Roggio

A "Blue Ocean Strategy" can help businesses identify market opportunities. But it can be misused — in a good way — to identify brand characteristics, resolve tactical conflicts, and help a business see itself from a customer's perspective. I'll address those misuses in this post.
Content Marketing
5 Content Marketing Ideas for January 2020

December 3, 2019 • Armando Roggio

In January 2020, use historical events such as Utah's statehood, the introduction of the iPhone, or the first Super Bowl to inspire your company's content marketing. Done well, content marketing can help a business build lasting customer relationships. But it requires a stream of new content ideas.
Schools & Resources
Ecommerce Design Trends for 2020

November 27, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Dark mode, accessibility, and simple layouts with plenty of white space may be among the most popular ecommerce design trends for 2020. Most of the more than 20 ecommerce professionals contacted for this article believed that 2020 held few significant design-specific trends.
B2B
Ecommerce Helps Retain B2B Customers

November 21, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Ecommerce can help retain business buyers via expedited reordering, real-time reporting, and improved customer service. B2B retention is often a combination of product quality, consistent delivery, contractual relationships, competitive negotiated prices, and close ties between sales representatives and their buyers.
SEO
How to Monitor SEO Topic Clusters, Silos

November 18, 2019 • Armando Roggio

An internal linking strategy around topic clusters or silos can improve site architecture and help search engines understand your content. But topic clusters are not a set-and-forget strategy. They require monitoring.
B2B
Legacy Software Holds Back B2B Ecommerce

November 11, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Some B2B companies are relying on legacy systems that are not capable of providing the modern ecommerce experience professional buyers seek. There is a myriad of problems with old, out-dated B2B software. But four categories could describe them all.
B2B
What’s the Best B2B Ecommerce Platform?

November 7, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Some estimates suggest the global business-to-business ecommerce market will be more than twice as large as retail ecommerce in 2020. Despite the market's size, many B2B sellers lag behind B2C in ecommerce technology, features, and performance.
B2B
B2B Buyers Have High Ecommerce Expectations

November 6, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Manufacturers and distributors know that they need to offer their products online for easy, self-service ordering. But many of those same businesses fear they won't be able to meet customer expectations.
Content Marketing
5 Content Marketing Ideas for December 2019

November 4, 2019 • Armando Roggio

In December, your company’s content could round up 2019’s top stories or trends, look ahead to what 2020 holds, or cover seasonal events and how-tos. Content marketing is the act of ...
Business
How to Find a Manufacturer for DTC Ecommerce Products

October 29, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Entrepreneurs and established retailers are developing their own private label, direct-to-consumer products for ecommerce. But most of these DTC sellers don't plan to manufacture those items in their own facilities with their own workforce, tools, and materials. Rather these businesses need a manufacturing partner.
Business
3 Tips for an Ecommerce Marketing SWOT Analysis

October 28, 2019 • Armando Roggio

A SWOT analysis — strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats — can help an ecommerce business improve its marketing, find new ways to promote its brand, and avoid competitive threats.
Marketing & Advertising
Fundamentals of Ecommerce Marketing for 2020

October 23, 2019 • Armando Roggio

New technologies and evolving consumer behaviors are impacting ecommerce marketing at its core. Some of the changes affect established tactics, such as search engine optimization. Others, such as developing and managing chatbots, are new. All require ecommerce marketers to master important new skills.
B2B
The Full Cost of a Direct-to-consumer Product

October 17, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Deciding if your direct-to-consumer product would be profitable is more than subtracting the product's unit cost from the planned selling price. It requires estimating the full cost of bringing the product to market, selling it, and delivering it.
Marketing & Advertising
Try a Dwindling Discount for Black Friday Ecommerce Sales

October 14, 2019 • Armando Roggio

A dwindling discount that starts high and diminishes every few hours from Thanksgiving through Black Friday can create urgency and drive ecommerce sales.
Design & Development
Add a Web App Manifest for an Ecommerce PWA

October 10, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Creating and loading a web app manifest file is among the first steps toward transforming an ecommerce website into a progressive web app — PWA — that can be installed on a mobile device, similar to a native app, with an icon on the home screen.
Content Marketing
5 Content Marketing Ideas for November 2019

October 3, 2019 • Armando Roggio

In all of its forms, content marketing is one of the best ways to engage customers and create a bond that could lead to repeat sales. What follows are five content marketing ideas your ecommerce business could try in November 2019.
Amazon & Marketplaces
Copywriting Tips for Amazon Product Pages

September 27, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Well written product detail pages can convince an Amazon shopper to buy your business's mattress topper, omega-3 supplement, or wooden bocce set — instead of your competitors'. Here are some tips to improve your company's Amazon product pages.
Content Marketing
Here’s Why Your Content Marketing Is Failing

September 25, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Done well, content marketing can be an important and effective promotional channel. If content marketing is not performing for your company, one of the following reasons could be the culprit.
Social Media
An Ecommerce Social Media Plan for the Holidays

September 19, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Social media posts can play an important role in a retailer's holiday promotions by engaging, informing, and encouraging potential shoppers. Social media is typically most effective when marketers plan and schedule well in advance. For your company's holiday social media campaigns, consider the following questions.