Marcia Kaplan

Articles by: Marcia Kaplan

Marcia Kaplan

Marcia Kaplan is a longtime contributor to Practical Ecommerce, addressing capital markets, global online trends, and more since 2011.

She is also a seasoned business writer and technology market research analyst, having written for trade magazines and newspapers, including CRN, Silicon Valley Business Journal, and Ziff Davis. Her consulting clients include Fortune 500 companies as well as startups

Marcia holds an M.B.A. from San Jose State University in California and a B.A. in sociology from Binghamton University in New York.

Email Marcia.

Cross-border Selling
Ecommerce in Latin America: Challenges, Opportunities

February 26, 2015 • Marcia Kaplan

Latin America presents a paradox to ecommerce merchants. It contains a rapidly growing middle class eager for a larger selection of quality goods, but the region has unreliable shipping operations ...
Local Business
Beacons to Help Physical Stores Combat Ecommerce

January 15, 2015 • Marcia Kaplan

Brick-and-mortar retailers have been hard at work trying to lure online shoppers, who often visit physical stores to see and touch products, and then make purchases online. I previously addressed this ...
Cross-border Selling
Mexico Poised for Ecommerce?

December 11, 2014 • Marcia Kaplan

With Mexico’s reputation for unrelenting poverty and crime, it’s difficult to think of the country as a good place to do business. Yet, with a population of 122.3 million and ...
Finance
Black Friday and Cyber Monday Losing Mojo?

December 3, 2014 • Marcia Kaplan

Although Cyber Monday and Black Friday online sales both broke records, analysts are seeing signs that the two big shopping days are losing some punch. Forrester Research ecommerce analyst Sucharita ...
Cross-border Selling
Ecommerce in Russia: Another Emerging Market?

November 12, 2014 • Marcia Kaplan

While ecommerce continues to take a larger share of overall retail sales in the United States and Western Europe, the biggest growth rates are occurring in emerging markets such as ...
Finance
10 Ways to Finance Your Ecommerce Business

October 9, 2014 • Marcia Kaplan

It has always been a challenge for small businesses to get financing. Circumstances worsened when banks tightened their lending criteria five years ago. Most banks lend only to businesses with ...
Finance
Alibaba’s IPO to Impact U.S. Ecommerce?

September 22, 2014 • Marcia Kaplan

The much-anticipated Alibaba IPO closed last Friday with shares initially priced at $68. Once trading got under way, the price of a share rose to $93. Demand was so strong ...
Amazon & Marketplaces
ShopRunner Joins Forces with Alibaba to Sell in China

August 14, 2014 • Marcia Kaplan

When I last wrote about ShopRunner two years ago, the company’s main marketing pitch was its free two-day shipping and free returns with a $79 annual membership or an $8.95
Cross-border Selling
Ecommerce in India Takes Off; Potential for U.S. Sellers

July 10, 2014 • Marcia Kaplan

While China has certainly been the star of international ecommerce, India — the second most populous country in the world — is starting to show some genuine energy. Even Alibaba,
Business
Will 3D Printing Disrupt Ecommerce?

June 25, 2014 • Marcia Kaplan

Invented in the mid-eighties, 3D printing was once restricted to the B-to-B market. Now as prices for 3D printers come down, the technology is making its way into the consumer ...
Finance
Intrastate Crowdfunding: Financing Option for Small Businesses

June 11, 2014 • Marcia Kaplan

Tired of waiting for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to issue final regulations for equity crowdfunding, several states have passed legislation enabling crowdfunding within their borders. Several more states ...
Amazon & Marketplaces
Alibaba IPO Likely Largest in U.S.; Analysis

May 15, 2014 • Marcia Kaplan

The Alibaba Group, the Chinese ecommerce juggernaut founded in 1999, is likely to become the largest U.S. IPO of all time. The company earlier this month filed papers to begin ...
Payments
Should Ecommerce Merchants Accept Bitcoin?

May 7, 2014 • Marcia Kaplan

Bitcoin, the best known of several virtual payment currencies, has made inroads into mainstream commerce, including brick-and-mortar retailers. Some ecommerce sites are already accepting Bitcoin and if you are considering ...
Finance
Ecommerce Companies Raise Funds with New Approach

April 9, 2014 • Marcia Kaplan

Will equity crowdfunding ever become a reality? This alternative to the usual financing mechanisms became legal two years ago when Congress passed the Jobs Act in April 2012. However, the ...
Amazon & Marketplaces
Amazon Raises Fee for Prime Shipping

March 17, 2014 • Marcia Kaplan

After floating the idea that it might raise the fee for Prime shipping to $119 from the current $79, Amazon settled on a $20 increase, to $99 per year. In ...
Amazon & Marketplaces
Anticipatory Shipping: Amazon’s Approach to Influencing Purchases

March 12, 2014 • Marcia Kaplan

One Amazon obsession is faster package delivery. When CEO Jeff Bezos shared his idea of delivery by drone with 60 Minutes, many ridiculed him. Now Amazon has a new idea ...
Finance
Amazon 2013 Financial Results Signal Changes in 2014

February 11, 2014 • Marcia Kaplan

After a few dismal quarters, Amazon turned a profit in the pivotal fourth quarter of 2013 and for the full fiscal year, despite losses in the second and third quarters.
Business
Utilizing ‘Voice of the Customer’ for Competitive Advantage

January 9, 2014 • Marcia Kaplan

In the extremely competitive retail environment, merchants are always looking for a competitive advantage. If you haven’t considered using “Voice of the Customer” (VoC) feedback, you may want to give ...
Marketing & Advertising
6 Tips for Marketing to Millennials

December 31, 2013 • Marcia Kaplan

Millennials are the roughly 65 million Americans between the ages of 18 and 34, a coveted demographic for brands and merchants. They spend a lot of money, even if they ...
Marketing & Advertising
Ecommerce Merchants Should Not Ignore Older Shoppers

December 16, 2013 • Marcia Kaplan

Conventional wisdom suggests that when seeking customers, ecommerce merchants should pursue teens and people in their twenties. These are the people who own the most electronic devices, are the most ...
Finance
Ecommerce Strong on Black Friday, Cyber Monday

December 10, 2013 • Marcia Kaplan

The much anticipated Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping extravaganza showed mixed results with online sales outpacing disappointing brick-and-mortar results. Brick-and-mortar Sales Brick-and-mortar retail sales on Black Friday were disappointing. The tactic ...
Finance
Equity Crowdfunding Edges Closer to Implementation

November 12, 2013 • Marcia Kaplan

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been widely criticized for dragging its feet in issuing implementing regulations for equity crowdfunding, which was enabled when the Jobs Act was signed ...
Finance
Amazon’s Loss Leader Strategy Results in No Profits

October 10, 2013 • Marcia Kaplan

For the first time in many years Amazon posted a loss in two of the last four quarters. The second quarter loss occurred despite a revenue increase of 22 percent ...
Business
U.S. Proposes ADA Compliance for Public Websites

September 24, 2013 • Marcia Kaplan

When Congress enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, the public Internet did not exist. Over the past 23 years, making the Internet accessible to those with disabilities ...
Local Business
Reverse Showrooming: Pinterest Helps Brick-and-mortar Retailers

September 12, 2013 • Marcia Kaplan

When consumers began using the sophisticated features of their smartphones to do price comparisons and make online purchases while browsing the aisles of stores, panic set in among brick-and-mortar retailers.
Cross-border Selling
Cross Border Ecommerce Booming

August 13, 2013 • Marcia Kaplan

As populous countries such as Brazil, China, and India develop increasingly acquisitive middle classes, opportunities for online sales to these countries are growing. Except for small mom and pop outlets, the brick and mortar retail sectors are poorly developed outside of major cities. ...
Fraud Prevention
Cyber Security for Ecommerce

July 15, 2013 • Marcia Kaplan

Anyone using the Internet should be aware of security issues. But companies that engage in financial transactions and collect customer data need to be especially careful. While much of the emphasis for ecommerce merchants is the protection of credit card information, in the age of big d...
Business
Teenage Online Shopping Trends

June 20, 2013 • Marcia Kaplan

Teenagers spend a lot of money. The 35.6 million teens in the United States are accomplished multi-channel shoppers and notoriously fickle, so marketing to them is a challenge. Luckily, this age group is a favorite subject of consumer researchers and a good deal of recent data exists to...
Email Marketing
Email Still Effective Marketing Tool?

June 5, 2013 • Marcia Kaplan

At a time when social media seems to be the only thing people talk about, email is still an effective ecommerce marketing tool. But merchants will have to alter how they use it if they wish to keep up with changes in how people access email messages. Are People Still Reading Email? Th...
Business
Ecommerce Trends Point to Bright Future

May 8, 2013 • Marcia Kaplan

Over the past five years, ecommerce has grown at a pace at least twice as fast as total retail sales and that trend will continue over the next five years, according to published reports. In 2012, ecommerce had a healthy 14.8 percent growth rate over 2011, easily eclipsing the total ret...