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Design & Development
Don’t Self-host an Ecommerce Store
October 11, 2017 • Eric Davis
Every ecommerce store needs to be hosted somewhere. But there’s little reason, in 2017, to self-host. In this post I’ll explain why. Self-hosting is where a company acquires physical servers and ... Read More »
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Design & Development
Understanding Code Deployments, for Ecommerce
August 24, 2017 • Eric Davis
“Code complete” is a common saying among software developers when they have finished a development project. But code complete doesn’t mean everything is done. Once developers have written code for a ... Read More »
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Design & Development
Confessions of an Ecommerce Developer
July 17, 2017 • Eric Davis
Web developers have standard processes and techniques to get their jobs done. They also have informal habits and opinions that influence their work — the kinds of things that no ... Read More »
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Design & Development
To Prevent Software Failures, Use Automated Testing
June 22, 2017 • Eric Davis
The larger your ecommerce store grows, the more complex the software behind it becomes. Even if you outsource your store development or use a hosted platform, this complexity will affect ... Read More »
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Design & Development
How to Implement Ecommerce Personalization
May 24, 2017 • Eric Davis
Personalization is a growing trend in ecommerce. Shoppers want to see relevant marketing, products, and offers. When they receive them, they typically respond by purchasing more. The idea around personalization is ... Read More »
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Design & Development
How a Web Developer Estimates Completion Time
April 26, 2017 • Eric Davis
It’s common for software developers to underestimate the time it takes to create a new feature. It’s one of the realities of software development. In this post, I’ll explain how a ... Read More »
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Design & Development
Understanding HTTP Status Codes, for Ecommerce
March 28, 2017 • Eric Davis
An HTTP status code informs a browser about a web page or resource. When you click a link, your browser is asking the web server for the page that was ... Read More »
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Design & Development
To Grow Search Traffic, Add JSON-LD
February 28, 2017 • Eric Davis
Presumably every ecommerce site wants to improve its organic search traffic. But a limiting factor with search engines has been their need to analyze huge quantities of HTML data, which is ... Read More »
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Design & Development
Using Caching (and Hardware) to Improve Page Speed
January 25, 2017 • Eric Davis
In “3 Backend Fixes to Increase Page Speed,” my article last month, I explained that caching can be applied to many areas of an ecommerce website. In this post, I’ll ... Read More »
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Design & Development
3 Backend Fixes to Increase Page Speed
December 30, 2016 • Eric Davis
Page speed is an important factor in search rankings and conversion rates. Every improvement to page speed will likely result in more sales. We’ve addressed page speed at, most recently, “10 ... Read More »
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Design & Development
Alternatives to Rebuilding an Ecommerce Store
November 30, 2016 • Eric Davis
In “How to Reduce Risks of an Ecommerce Rebuild,” my article last month, I described a process to rebuild an ecommerce store that reduces the risk of sales interruptions and ... Read More »
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Design & Development
How to Reduce Risks of an Ecommerce Rebuild
October 25, 2016 • Eric Davis
Most every ecommerce storeowner, at some point, wants to completely rebuild her store. It’s usually for a number of reasons. Current store is too slow and is losing customers. Current store looks and ... Read More »
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Design & Development
Glossary of Web Development Roles
September 22, 2016 • Eric Davis
Web development teams are typically complex and filled with a variety of people. It is often difficult for outsiders to understand who does what. Many roles in a development team are ... Read More »
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Design & Development
Understanding 4 Database Types, for Ecommerce
September 5, 2016 • Eric Davis
As I wrote in “How Databases Work with Ecommerce Applications,” you’re likely using a database for your ecommerce store even if you don’t know it. Ecommerce sites typically use databases for: Transaction tracking; Product ... Read More »
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Design & Development
How Databases Work with Ecommerce Applications
July 21, 2016 • Eric Davis
“Database-backed.” “Powered by PostgreSQL.” “Cloud database.” “Redundant, multi-zone NoSQL backend.” Those are all terms that describe ecommerce systems that use databases. But, what, exactly, do those terms mean? Is it good ... Read More »
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Design & Development
How Backend Code Describes an Ecommerce Business
June 23, 2016 • Eric Davis
In “How Backend Web Applications Power Ecommerce Sites,” my article last month, I addressed web applications and explained how they can dynamically generate pages for your ecommerce store, eliminating having ... Read More »
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Design & Development
How Backend Web Applications Power Ecommerce Sites
May 26, 2016 • Eric Davis
I’ve explained how a website is displayed in a browser — the front-end technology — in “What HTML5 Means for Ecommerce Merchants,” “What CSS Means for Ecommerce Merchants,” and “What ... Read More »
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Design & Development
What JavaScript Means for Ecommerce Merchants
April 19, 2016 • Eric Davis
Web developers use three core tools when building ecommerce sites: HTML for content and organization, CSS for the design and presentation, and JavaScript for the interaction with backend servers. This article, ... Read More »
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Design & Development
What CSS Means for Ecommerce Merchants
March 18, 2016 • Eric Davis
Last month, in “What HTML5 Means for Ecommerce Merchants,” I described the purpose of HyperText Markup Language, and how HTML5 is better than previous versions. In this article, I’ll review ... Read More »
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Design & Development
What HTML5 Means for Ecommerce Merchants
February 25, 2016 • Eric Davis
What is one thing all ecommerce stores have in common? They use HTML. In fact, just about every website uses HTML. That means when an update to HTML comes out, it ... Read More »
Eric Davis
Eric Davis is founder and solo developer of Little Stream Software, which helps ecommerce entrepreneurs customize their Shopify stores using public, private, and unlisted Shopify apps.
He developed his first ecommerce store in 2005 and has since worked with various ecommerce and SaaS companies to build and systematize their business operations.
Eric created a free course to teach Shopify storeowners how private apps work and what they can and can't do — with more than a dozen examples of how they can increase your revenue.
13 Free Courses on Social Media Marketing
5 Content Marketing Ideas for November 2017
26 Chrome Extensions for Productivity
SEO: How to Improve Site-specific Ranking Factors
SEO Fire Drill: 'Traffic Is Down!'
Mobile-first SEO Makes Search Console More Important
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