Elizabeth Hollingsworth

Why free content can give you excellent SEO but poor subscriber growth

November 15, 2012 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

Getting customers to sign up to your newsletter – and to keep them – is a challenge most of us face. Those who’ve bought from you once are more likely to buy from you again (especially following an email), and those who are newsletter members are more likely to convert into purchasing ...

Business > Merchant Voice

7 marketing avenues that have been a waste of time and money, and 4 that haven’t

October 29, 2012 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

I’ve made plenty of mistakes in running my website business, and spending money on certain marketing vehicles is one of them. 1. People ignore banner ads online When was the last time you clicked on a banner ad online? And bought anything from it? I certainly haven’t and I know fro...

Business

Lessons Learned: T-shirt Retailer Launches in Dorm Room

October 18, 2012 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

You’d think running a fledgling beer t-shirt business as a finance and marketing student would get you extra points with your New York University lecturers. But instead, in 2004, it ...

Business

Lessons Learned: Eco-friendly Products Require the Right Ettitude

September 17, 2012 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

Melbourne-based Phoebe Yu is CEO and founder of Ettitude, an Australian ecommerce site that sells eco-conscious clothing and household goods. Yu’s first role after completing her bachelor's degree at Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade was as a sales and marketing executive for Shangh...

Business > Merchant Voice

12 tips for creating a great customer birthday program

September 16, 2012 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

What’s the one thing people are most fond of, after their name? Their birthday! Annual events like Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day roll around every year, and while not everyone celebrates them, everyone has a birthday. Even if something like 19 million people (7 billion ...

Business

Lessons Learned: Selling Specialty Handbags Expensive

September 6, 2012 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

Las Vegas-based business duo Christopher Nelson and Tamara Leuty created patented designer handbags with built-in lights that enable you to see what's inside. Then they started a business — Glass Handbag — in late 2010. They received U.S. and international patents for their invention. T...

Business > Merchant Voice

Whatever I’m doing, I’m not doing it right

August 16, 2012 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

One of the best things about Practical eCommerce is that you can learn from the wonderful articles and from the advice that online retailers give. However, sometimes a little knowledge is worse than none at all. I'm doing something, but whatever it is isn't right... More unique visito...

Business > Merchant Voice

5 ways to expand your product range for free or little cost

July 30, 2012 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

If you're a small online retailer, you may not want to tie up much – or if things are starting to bite financially, any more - money in purchasing products for your online store. But how can you expand your product selection easily without affecting your bottom line? Here's five possib...

Business

Lessons Learned: Personalized Gift Site a Family Affair

July 26, 2012 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

It wasn’t until her youngest daughter attended pre-school that Melissa Perlman Chelist could help manage the small gift website her husband Barry and his business partner David had created ...

Business > Merchant Voice

7 ways to maximise distribution opportunities through other retailers

June 20, 2012 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

As an online retailer, you obviously have your own store. But what are some of the issues you need to consider when distributing your products and services through other online retailers? 1. Who are their customers? Presumably some of them are the same types of people who do business ...

Business

Lessons Learned: Working Mom Applies Science to Online Toy Business

June 18, 2012 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

Kelly Brough is no stranger to the online world. She worked for 10 years at AOL and Lonely Planet, the travel-guide company. Nonetheless, this high-powered working mother, with degrees ...

Business > Merchant Voice

One disastrous daily deal experience: What Not To Do

May 28, 2012 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

After experiencing one of the worst purchase experiences ever via a daily deal website which has broken nearly every retailing rule you can break, here is my What Not To Do post. On 19 January 2012, I saw a tempting offer from the daily deal website, Spreets to buy $100 worth of Elle M...

Business > Merchant Voice

10 reasons your mother makes your best beta tester

May 15, 2012 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

If you sell B2C products and/or services, your mother (or grandmother) could be your best beta testing panel member ever. Here's 10 reasons why. 1. Number one advocate Can you imagine a more fervent supporter of your work? It's like a grown-up version of her wanting to hear what you'...

Business

Lessons Learned: Wholesale Butcher Becomes Prime Retail

May 4, 2012 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

Australian Paul Tory studied accounting after leaving high school. But after “two very boring years,” he realized the profession wasn’t for him and decided to try a trade. He undertook a motor mechanics apprenticeship for five years before his father invited him in 1998 to join the fa...

Business

Lessons Learned: U.K. Online Ink Store Celebrates 10 Years

April 18, 2012 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

“Lessons Learned” is a series where we ask ecommerce business owners to share their experiences, good and bad. For this installment, we corresponded with John Sollars, founder of Stinkyink, a ...

Business > Merchant Voice

Hotmail users unsubscribe most but most likely to convert

April 17, 2012 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

Have you ever started signing up for a white paper, e-book or guide, entering your free web-based account in the email field, only to see they won’t accept anything other than a business address? So you reluctantly do so, most likely because if you’re anything like me, you rarely unsu...

Business > Merchant Voice

8 ways expos are similar to online marketing

April 4, 2012 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

1. Go against type If you’re trying to get known for an unusual niche, don’t book the obvious, traditional expo category (in my case, New Age expos for astrology reports), in the beginning. You’ll compete as an also-ran against others with bigger wallets, better branding, bigger sta...

Business

Lessons Learned: SEO Makes Australian Florist Bloom

March 27, 2012 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

“Lessons Learned” is a series where we ask ecommerce business owners to share their experiences, good and bad. For this installment, we corresponded with Andrew Thomson, co-founder and CEO of ...

Business > Merchant Voice

8 free or low-cost ways to market your website

March 25, 2012 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

Get the message about your business out there for next to nothing! 1. Print business cards with product descriptions Next time you print business cards, squeeze it in a catchy description and/or images of what your website sells to help jog people’s memories. Or create a tiny “brochur...

Business > Merchant Voice

Daily deals: 6 ways they ruin your business, 3 ways they might not

March 19, 2012 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

If you’ve considered doing a daily deal with Groupon et al, first consider what do they do to your online business. 1. They massively lower profit There are so many daily deal websites out there that many consumers have signed up to three or more. But to create cut-through in their in...

Business > Merchant Voice

How you can help customers going through a hard time

March 11, 2012 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

If your customer isn’t going through a tough time, they definitely know someone who is. And I’m not saying this because I’m a doom’n’gloom kinda girl – if anything, I’m a bit of a Pollyanna. Of the 774 daily – OK, near-daily – blog posts I’ve written for the past three years, the most...

Conversion > Merchant Voice

How to reduce customer returns, refunds and resentment

March 4, 2012 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

If you can reduce returns and refunds, you make more money! Here are my tips from my business and personal consumer experience. 1. 100% money-back guarantee When you shop online, you probably don’t buy products from unfamiliar companies, without a 100% money-back guarantee. You might ...

Business > Merchant Voice

My Seven Big Mistakes

February 26, 2012 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

When people ask me what was the biggest mistake I have made with my luxury astrology report website business, I have to joke, “Which one?!” I have made so many... Big Mistake 1 My website Itsinthestarsonline.com was launched on 19 December 2006 after I interviewed seven website develop...