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.

Finance
5 Reasons for an Ecommerce Business Plan

April 10, 2013 • Marcia Kaplan

Does an ecommerce company need a business plan? Yes, almost any business can benefit from developing a business plan. While many companies prepare a plan solely to secure outside funding, a business plan can also help you focus on what you want your business to be in the future and pro...
Finance
SWOT Analysis for Ecommerce Companies

April 3, 2013 • Marcia Kaplan

A SWOT analysis — Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats — is something many MBA students learn. Unfortunately, businesses frequently treat SWOT like geometry: one of those things you learn but never use again.
Analytics & Data
4 Ways Big Data Can Help Ecommerce Merchants

March 12, 2013 • Marcia Kaplan

In "Understanding Big Data For Ecommerce," I provided a general overview of how online merchants can use Big Data. In this article I will describe in more detail how Big Data — i.e., large amounts of seemingly random data from many sources — can be used to create competitive advantages....
Finance
Internet Sales Tax: States Take the Lead

February 13, 2013 • Marcia Kaplan

The days of sales-tax-free online purchasing are coming to an end for many consumers. 2012 was a year of inaction on the federal level because the Marketplace Fairness Act that would have required sales tax collection by Internet merchants on a national level never came to a vote. Howev...
Social Media
Selling on Facebook Easier for Smaller Merchants

February 8, 2013 • Marcia Kaplan

The merits of selling goods on Facebook are a topic of much debate. Several large retailers, including GameStop, Gap, jcpenney, and Nordstrom, experienced disappointing results and shut down their Facebook stores within months. But according to Sucharita Mulpuru, retail analyst at For...
Finance
Equity Crowdfunding Stalls

January 25, 2013 • Marcia Kaplan

When President Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act in April 2012, the clock started ticking on a 270-day period for the Securities and Exchange Commission to write the regulations that would govern crowdfunding. That 270 period is over and no regulations exist. SEC Chai...
Analytics & Data
Understanding Big Data For Ecommerce

January 14, 2013 • Marcia Kaplan

The term "Big Data" was the Internet buzzword of 2012. The use of Big Data promises to become more prevalent in 2013, as merchants large and small who use Big Data analytics can gain a significant competitive advantage. What is Big Data? Webopedia defines it as "a massive volume of bo...
Finance
Analyzing Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Overall Retail Sales

December 3, 2012 • Marcia Kaplan

Cyber Monday online sales reached $1.47 billion, up 17 percent over last year, representing the heaviest online spending day in history, according to digital tracking firm comScore, which also reported that Black Friday sales reached $1.04 billion, besting last year's amount by 28 perce...
Design & Development
Mobile Devices Capture Increasing Share of Holiday Shopping

November 29, 2012 • Marcia Kaplan

While overall online commerce showed impressive gains over last year's Black Friday/Cyber Monday holiday, the real standout this year was mobile commerce. Compared with the same period in 2011, mobile grabbed a much larger share of both shopping and actual purchases. According to IBM’...
Finance
Third-Quarter Ecommerce Results Bode Well for the 2012 Holiday Season

November 15, 2012 • Marcia Kaplan

The growth in online purchasing continues. In a survey of 1,989 online consumers conducted during the last week of October, digital-tracking firm comScore found that In Q3 2012, online sales grew 15 percent over the same period last year, compared with a two percent year-over-year growt...
Conversion
Marketing to the Online Hispanic Consumer

October 11, 2012 • Marcia Kaplan

Can you afford to ignore 33.5 million U.S. Internet users? Probably not. It might be a bit more difficult to market to the Hispanic population but it's certainly worthwhile. Hispanics have substantial purchasing power and they shop online. Over 50 million people in the U.S. are of Hispa...
Conversion
Understanding Affluent Male Online Shopping Behavior

September 13, 2012 • Marcia Kaplan

When ecommerce was in its infancy, consumers used the Internet to purchase basic items such as books and CDs that usually didn't involve size, quality, color, or style issues. Shoppers knew what they were getting and choices were based almost solely on price. Slowly, the array of goods ...
Finance
Ecommerce Shines in the Second Quarter of 2012

August 23, 2012 • Marcia Kaplan

The first half of 2012 continued the 2011 fourth quarter trend of strong ecommerce growth. In Q2, online retail grew nearly four times the rate of total consumer spending in the U.S., according to ecommerce research firm comScore. The Census Bureau reports that U.S. ecommerce sales in Q...
Finance
Ecommerce Acquisitions, Mergers, and Partnerships — What You Need to Know

August 8, 2012 • Marcia Kaplan

In the late 1990s, ecommerce vendors looked to brick and mortar retailers for marketing tips and best practices. Now, as more people shop online and abandon brick and mortar stores, retail chains are turning to online merchants for advice. That's because web-only sellers have shown th...
Local Business
Showrooming Challenges Brick-and-Mortar Retailers

July 25, 2012 • Marcia Kaplan

Last December, at the height of the Christmas shopping season, Amazon aggressively promoted its price-checking mobile phone application by giving shoppers five percent off items on Amazon that they scanned while in brick-and-mortar stores. The application, which compares store prices wi...
Amazon & Marketplaces
ShopRunner May Help Merchants Compete with Amazon Prime

July 13, 2012 • Marcia Kaplan

For consumers, the cost of shipping has been one of the major drawbacks of ecommerce. During the last holiday season, free shipping made a comeback as merchants tried to ensure that consumers would buy online. So popular was the promotion many merchants continue to offer it. Now, with t...
Finance
Investment in Ecommerce Firms Robust

June 14, 2012 • Marcia Kaplan

While the poor showing of Facebook in its initial public offering last month has immobilized the market for Internet companies wanting to sell stock to the public, the overall investment climate remains strong. Merger and acquisitions activity in the ecommerce arena has remained robust ...
Conversion
Online Apparel Sales Explode

May 10, 2012 • Marcia Kaplan

Books, music, software, and consumer electronics have been the mainstay of ecommerce transactions since online sales began. Apparel is now the fastest-growing segment — by growth percentage — in ecommerce thanks to the greater sophistication of shopping tools, free shipping, and more fl...
Finance
Going Public? How to Decide Which Exchange to List On

April 20, 2012 • Marcia Kaplan

Thinking about taking your company public? After you get through all the paperwork you will have to decide at which stock exchange you want to list your company. Each publicly traded company may trade shares on only one domestic stock exchange. Substantive differences exist among the ex...
Finance
Equity Crowdfunding Is Now Legal in U.S.

April 10, 2012 • Marcia Kaplan

Last week President Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act) that includes revisions to the 1930s era financial regulations that limited equity funding for start-up businesses. Equity crowdfunding is now legal in the U.S. The final bill is more restrictive than ...
Finance
Kabbage, A Funding Source for Ecommerce Merchants

March 15, 2012 • Marcia Kaplan

When we first first wrote about Kabbage just over a year ago, it was a fledgling endeavor with only eBay merchants as customers. But Kabbage now serves merchants who use Yahoo! stores, Etsy, Amazon, and Shopify, as well as eBay. In July Kabbage will be launching in the U.K., its first ...
Social Media
How Does Facebook Make Money?

February 10, 2012 • Marcia Kaplan

Facebook has finally filed its long anticipated SEC S-1 registration to take the company public. The filing is straightforward, lacking any surprises or innovative accounting techniques that other recent registration statements have offered. Nevertheless, the investment community and th...
Conversion
Daily Deals: A Good Investment for Merchants?

January 16, 2012 • Marcia Kaplan

Daily deal sites generated a lot of news and excitement in 2011 — mostly from the consumer perspective. I thought it would be useful to review some of the key factors in deciding whether participating in daily deals is a good idea for merchants. Some commentators have suggested that "d...
Payments
Layaway: Retro Purchasing Process Reappears Online

January 3, 2012 • Marcia Kaplan

Layaway made a big retail comeback in 2011, with stores such as Sears, Walmart, and Kmart encouraging customers to take advantage of this retro purchase technique. Walmart discontinued layaway in 2006 but brought it back in 2011 for fine jewelry, toys, and electronics. Sears and Kmart o...
Finance
Zynga Falters in Public Debut; Affects Facebook?

December 26, 2011 • Marcia Kaplan

The market for technology stocks is closing the year on a less than happy note and the disappointing public debut of online game provider Zynga did nothing to change the mood. Zynga's Opening Day Zynga's IPO was highly anticipated despite the fact that in the days prior to going publ...
Finance
6 Internet Stock Offerings in 2011; Recap

December 19, 2011 • Marcia Kaplan

Although 2011 is not yet over, it appears it will be a dismal year for the IPO — initial public stock offering — market. As of September, according to statistics compiled by market tracker Dealogic and reported in The Wall Street Journal, 63 percent of all 76 IPOs were trading below the...
Conversion
Behavioral Differences Between Men and Women Influence Shopping

December 9, 2011 • Marcia Kaplan

Retail is the dominion of women; they shop to purchase both essential and discretionary goods, to relax, and to socialize. So it's not surprising that women account for over 80 percent of consumer spending, or about $5 trillion dollars annually, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Men,...
Conversion
Analyzing Cyber Monday Sales

December 2, 2011 • Marcia Kaplan

Black Friday and Cyber Monday were greatly anticipated by merchants and consumers and the results did not disappoint. Online sales on Cyber Monday reached $1.25 billion according to Internet tracking firm comScore, making it the biggest online spending day in history. Revenues increase...
Finance
Crowdfunding: 5 Things You Should Know

November 24, 2011 • Marcia Kaplan

New crowdfunding sites are springing up every month and more and more entrepreneurs are looking to these sites for money. Despite all the hoopla, crowdfunding is not currently a good alternative for most start-up or small businesses. Here are five things you should know about crowdfundi...
Influencers & Affiliates
Celebrity Curators Help Personalize Ecommerce

November 18, 2011 • Marcia Kaplan

How do you stand out in a crowded market with a sizeable number of players competing mostly on low prices and free shipping? By differentiating yourself. Several ecommerce websites are melding social media with personalization to create a more inviting and collaborative shopping experie...