-
Business
Bloglist: Ecommerce Potpourri
June 7, 2007 • PEC Staff
In Bloglist, we ask ecommerce professionals to identify their favorite blogs. For this installment, we've asked Thomas Holmes with logic+intuition. Name: Thomas Holmes Founder, logic+intuition Company: logic+intuition *Blogs: *Yclick.it, Thomasholmes.info [Grokdotcom.com] This blo...
-
Design & Development
Critique Part Four: Site Search
June 4, 2007 • PEC Staff
The Problem: The results aren't always relevant. The Fix: A search for "snowboard" returns wax as the top result — but no snowboard until the fourth page of results, even though the site has an entire section dedicated to snowboards. Similarly irrelevant results came back for "bindings...
-
Google Ads
Critique Part Two: Pay-Per-Click Advertising
May 30, 2007 • PEC Staff
The Problem: A quick glance at Daddies Board Shop's Google account indicates in-depth keyword research was not performed. The Fix: It appears that the company chose keywords based on insider business knowledge but hasn't considered what terms people actually use to search. For example,...
-
Business
Critique Part One: General Internet Presence
May 30, 2007 • PEC Staff
The Problem: Daddiesboardshop.com isn't taking advantage of branding opportunities on video and social networking sites. The Fix: Aside from the videos I found on YouTube and Google Video (which are a great start), very little appears externally to distinguish the authenticity of the b...
-
Business
Daddiesboardshop.com Wins Site Review
May 30, 2007 • PEC Staff
Melanie Loveland and her son Dan built a business together around a mutual passion — snowboarding. What started as a small, brick-and-mortar store in Portland, Ore., has evolved into a full-fledged multichannel merchant. It was a process the owners didn't foresee when the business start...
-
Design & Development
Online Payment Alternative: Bill Me Later
May 24, 2007 • PEC Staff
Vince Talbert is the vice president of marketing for I4 Commerce (pronounced "eye four commerce"), a company offering the online payment alternative Bill Me Later at. PeC: What does Bill Me Later provide to customers? Talbert: "It is a payment option designed so customers can make ...
-
Conversion
‘Exclusive Offers’ Help Retain Customers
May 24, 2007 • PEC Staff
Minding the Store is a classic book written by one of the all-time great merchants, Stanley Marcus of Neiman-Marcus fame. Its lessons were extensive, but taking care of the customer and delivering a well-merchandised experience were two of the essential components. Today, it is imperat...
-
Conversion
Comparison Sites Can Help Boost Sales
May 21, 2007 • PEC Staff
Shopping comparison sites enable merchants to market to the masses, but stepping into a competitive environment like BizRate, PriceGrabber or Shopping.com can seem pretty daunting to the owner of a small ecommerce business. However, three entrepreneurs say getting out of the comfort zon...
-
Marketing & Advertising
How To Create ‘Buzz,’ Boost Traffic At Your Site
May 21, 2007 • PEC Staff
Over the last year or so, "social media" has quickly become the next "big" thing online. A plethora of social communities with names like Digg, StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, Wikipedia and YouTube have popped up to connect people who share common interests. As impressive as all that may sou...
-
Business
The Entrepreneur, The Optimist
May 16, 2007 • PEC Staff
Patrick Coughlin is experiencing firsthand the same challenges many online entrepreneurs face: It's hard to build a successful online business. Coughlin has owned a successful brick-and-mortar jewelry store in St. Clair, Mich., for 15 years. That business had grown to fill a 3,000-squa...
-
Business
Ebiz Start-up: Selling Online Is Hard Work
May 16, 2007 • PEC Staff
Seven months into the operation of his new ecommerce store, Pat Coughlin's goal of reaching $1 million in sales is nowhere in sight — but that hasn't curbed his enthusiasm for the online venture. Coughlin, longtime owner of a successful jewelry store in St. Clair, Mich., won an eBay ...
-
Conversion
Show-Me-The-Money Conversion Ratios
May 11, 2007 • PEC Staff
When I begin an ecommerce optimization engagement, there are four key ratios that I immediately look for. And as strange as it might sound, the site's overall conversion ratio is not one of them — at least not directly. To be fair, the four ratios that I'm primarily interested in are a...
-
Conversion
Tools To Boost Conversion
May 9, 2007 • PEC Staff
Most ebusiness owners can find ways to increase traffic to their site, but turning a visitor into a buyer remains an ongoing challenge. To get a visitor at your site to do what you want him/her to do - whether it is signing up for a newsletter, buying a product online or some other des...
-
Conversion
Earn Affiliate Commissions
May 7, 2007 • PEC Staff
Say you run a smaller ecommerce operation that sells specialized running shoes, but nothing else. Your customers might request running apparel, but you don't carry running apparel, and you don't want to stock it. "There are dozens of large companies that sell running apparel," says Dio...
-
Conversion
Free Search-Marketing Tools
April 30, 2007 • PEC Staff
During the last few years, the search engine marketing (SEM) industry has grown significantly. Many new resources have popped up to offer all kinds of information and advice. However, many people find this avalanche of information overwhelming. How can you distinguish the truly useful a...
-
Staffing
When Is It Time To Hire A Call Center?
April 30, 2007 • PEC Staff
More business is a good thing, but it creates challenges: A backlog of tasks, costly space and equipment demands and, frequently, a phone that won’t stop ringing. Many ecommerce business owners turn to customer call centers for help. That was the case for Revival Animal Health of Orang...
-
Conversion
Selling With A Blog
April 26, 2007 • PEC Staff
Interactive marketing has its fashionable trends like any other industry, and the business blog has been its red carpet champion for the past few years. Heck, the blog has gained such widespread popularity that it's almost become passe in some circles — particularly among those who look...
-
Platforms & Apps
What Do You Dislike About Your Shopping Cart?
April 18, 2007 • PEC Staff
Readers weigh in on what they would like to see improved with their carts. 1ShoppingCart "We offer live UPS shipping rates, but for some reason 1ShoppingCart is only set up for commercial rates. It should default to residential rates. I would guess there are five residential buyers ...
-
Business
Can Product Recommendations Help You?
April 16, 2007 • PEC Staff
Most people prefer to get an opinion before purchasing a product — and if that opinion is from a current user, all the better. This desire to make informed buying decisions has given rise to product recommendation networks, such as Thisnext.com, which allow consumers to express opinions...
-
Business
Crash Course on Pay-Per-Click Arbitrage
April 11, 2007 • PEC Staff
If you've spent any time on pay-per-click (PPC) forums or in the blogosphere, you've probably heard about PPC arbitrage — the ill-reputed practice that drives bid prices up and makes life more difficult for advertisers. So, what exactly is it, and how can it affect you as an advertiser?...
-
Business
Yahoo! Panama: So Far, So Good
April 11, 2007 • PEC Staff
Yahoo!'s new paid-search advertising platform is performing well for advertisers. That's according to executives with three companies that have used the new system, known informally as Panama, since its inception earlier this year. Leigh Vosler is paid placement marketing manager with ...
-
Business
PPC, Copywriting, Product Images
April 9, 2007 • PEC Staff
When jeweler Pat Coughlin decided to expand his brick-and-mortar business to include an ecommerce store, he set an ambitious goal to generate $1 million in online sales in the first 12 months. To pull off that feat, he hired six staff members to lead critical parts of the new endeavor. ...
-
Business
Self-service Shouldn’t Replace Customer Service
April 9, 2007 • PEC Staff
Customers are satisfied with their ecommerce experiences and in many cases seem to prefer online buying to brick-and-mortar shopping trips. That's what recent studies show — but it doesn't mean virtual merchants should allow complacency to take hold. The web is experiencing unprecedent...
-
Conversion
Contextual Advertising: What You Need to Know
April 4, 2007 • PEC Staff
If you have considered using contextual advertising through a Google content network — or any other venue — there are a few things to consider before you give it a try. Contextual advertising is what you experience when ads based on the content of a web page you're viewing dynamically ...
-
Business
Selling Your Ecommerce Business
April 2, 2007 • PEC Staff
To web entrepreneurs who contemplate selling their online businesses, experts issue a single warning: Get your financial house in order. Online endeavors are frequently launched by people who have a great idea, a great passion or a distinctive skill set, but who often lack traditional ...
-
Business
Bloglist: From SEO to Self Development
April 2, 2007 • PEC Staff
In Bloglist, we ask ecommerce professionals to identify their favorite blogs. For this installment, we’ve asked Yaro Starak, with Entrepreneur’s Journey. Name: Yaro Starak, web entrepreneur Company: Entrepreneur's Journey JohnChow.com This is a relatively new and prolific blogger....
-
Conversion
Incentives That Create More Sales
March 28, 2007 • PEC Staff
What makes a customer commit to that profit-boosting holiday purchase? One respondent to a survey conducted by the e-tailing group summed up the heavily promotional mindset of today's online shopper this way: "Find something that no one else has been able to find, with a coupon and free...
-
Business
Seven Insurance Issues For Merchants
March 26, 2007 • PEC Staff
When an ecommerce business begins to grow, new risks mount and site owners should examine insurance options. Finding an insurance agent who understands the challenges of online business has been tough for many e-business owners. Only recently have insurance options become available. On...
-
Business
Digital Assets: What Are They, And How Are They Sold?
March 20, 2007 • PEC Staff
Digital assets, often called digital content, are products that can be consumed via an electronic handheld device or used online. The forms digital assets take vary greatly. Digital content might be auditory, such as a song (Apple's iTunes) or ring tone for your cell phone; it can incl...
-
Business
Quick Query: Selling Digital Content Via Major Retailers
March 19, 2007 • PEC Staff
Karl Hirsch is the CEO of Protexis (Protexis.com), a company that links retail outlets with companies wanting to sell digital content such as software, music, video, e-books and other digital products. PeC: What does Protexis do? Hirsch: We help publishers of digital content sell and f...