• Design & Development

  A Short Introduction to CSS Grid Layout for Ecommerce Sites

  

  October 13, 2017 • Armando Roggio

  CSS Grid is a two-dimensional layout model that can be combined with CSS media queries to produce complex and responsive website layouts, including layouts for ecommerce stores. The Internet and the... Read More »

• 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 »

• Design & Development

  6 Uncommon Marketing Tactics to Try This Christmas

  

  September 26, 2017 • Armando Roggio

  A good marketing plan can include a mixture of tried and true tactics and, also, somewhat unusual or uncommon promotions. With the 2017 Christmas shopping season closing in, your marketing department... Read More »

• Design & Development

  78 Free Responsive Email Templates

  

  September 25, 2017 • Sig Ueland

  With more of your shoppers on mobile devices, make sure your next email campaign uses a responsive design that looks good on any screen. Take advantage of free responsive email... Read More »

• Design & Development

  From Shopping Cart to Ecommerce Platform and Back Again?

  

  September 21, 2017 • Armando Roggio

  Ten or 15 years ago many of the companies selling goods and services online would have described their ecommerce software as a “shopping cart.” Now, changes in software development could... Read More »

• Design & Development

  21 Free Web Design Tools, Summer 2017

  

  September 13, 2017 • Sig Ueland

  Enhance your website with free elements and tools from the design community. Here is a list of new web tools and design elements from summer 2017. There are designer and developer... Read More »

• Design & Development

  20 Open Source Ecommerce Platforms

  

  September 11, 2017 • Sig Ueland

  Open source ecommerce platforms offer businesses an inexpensive and customizable option for launching an online store. Many of open source platforms also have active support communities and scalability, for growth.... Read More »

• Design & Development

  9 Critical Skills to Build a Robust B2B Ecommerce Site

  

  September 5, 2017 • Lori McDonald

  Building a B2B ecommerce site requires a breadth of skills. It’s important to look not just at people or roles, but the expertise to accomplish the job. In this post, I’ll... Read More »

• Design & Development

  16 Typography Resources: Fonts, Galleries, Instruction

  

  September 4, 2017 • Sig Ueland

  Improving the typography of your website can be an easy and inexpensive way to add value to your business. Here is a list of tools and resources for typography. There are... Read More »

• 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 »

• Design & Development

  Omnichannel Commerce Needs a New Kind of CMS

  

  August 11, 2017 • Armando Roggio

  Businesses striving to provide shoppers with omnichannel experiences need to find new ways to manage, store, and present product information. Commerce is changing. For retailers, shoppers now have many ways to... Read More »

• Design & Development

  13 WordPress Plugins to Sell Digital Downloads

  

  August 7, 2017 • Sig Ueland

  WordPress is one of the most versatile content management systems, with over 50,000 plugins to customize it. Here is a list of plugins to sell digital downloads. There are simple tools... Read More »

• Design & Development

  Which Comes First, the Ecommerce Platform or the Developer?

  

  July 31, 2017 • Armando Roggio

  Your ecommerce business needs a new platform and a developer — but in what order? An ecommerce platform is the software your business will use to conduct online transactions and a developer... Read More »

• Design & Development

  12 Platforms to Sell Digital Downloads

  

  July 30, 2017 • Sig Ueland

  For merchants and creators of digital goods, there are a variety of ecommerce platforms focused on selling downloads directly to consumers. With these tools, merchants can control download and pricing... Read More »

• 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 »

• Design & Development

  Static Site Generators an Option for Ecommerce Blogs, Content

  

  July 13, 2017 • Armando Roggio

  Static site generators offer an alternative to content management systems like WordPress or similar and may produce faster-loading web pages that are more secure and less complex to maintain. Static... Read More »

• Design & Development

  20 Free Shopify Apps, to Extend and Enhance

  

  July 10, 2017 • Sig Ueland

  Launched a decade ago, Shopify was born out of an effort by its founders to sell snowboards online. After building their shop, they realized other stores were a need of... Read More »

• Design & Development

  15 Free WooCommerce Extensions, to Extend and Enhance

  

  July 4, 2017 • Sig Ueland

  With over 3 million active installs, WooCommerce is the most popular platform for ecommerce businesses. Its success is partly due to its flexibility, with hundreds of extensions available to customize... Read More »

• Design & Development

  Imgix C.E.O. on Real-time Image Optimization

  

  June 23, 2017 • Armando Roggio

  Images are vital for ecommerce. Images on a home page, category pages, and campaign landing pages — they all help engage shoppers. But here’s the challenge: Are you optimizing those... Read More »

• 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 »

• Design & Development

  20 Free Web Design Tools, Spring 2017

  

  June 12, 2017 • Sig Ueland

  Making use of free elements and tools from the design community is an easy way to add value to your website. Here is a list of new web tools and design... Read More »

• Design & Development

  10 Tutorials for Product Photography

  

  May 29, 2017 • Sig Ueland

  To showcase your products at little expense, consider do-it-yourself product photography. Assemble a professional-level production setup at very little cost, and there are plenty of expert tutorials available to guide... Read More »

• 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 »

• Design & Development

  10 Free Themes for Magento

  

  May 22, 2017 • Sig Ueland

  Magento is one of the most popular ecommerce platforms, with more than 250,000 merchants and 150,000 developers, providing a vast assortment themes and extensions. The Community and Enterprise editions of... Read More »

• Design & Development

  12 Online Tools to Produce Video Content

  

  May 14, 2017 • Sig Ueland

  If you’re interested in producing video content to promote your business, you can find plenty of video production tools online for very little cost, or free. Use them to create... Read More »

• Design & Development

  11 Newsletter Plugins for WordPress

  

  May 2, 2017 • Sig Ueland

  WordPress is a highly customizable content management system. With the right plugins, it can be an effective platform to create a newsletter and build a list of subscribers. Here is a list... Read More »

• 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 »

• Design & Development

  13 Extensions to Enhance a Magento Store

  

  April 23, 2017 • Sig Ueland

  Magento is a powerful ecommerce platform, used by more than 250,000 merchants worldwide. With hundreds of extensions on the Magento Connect marketplace, Magento is a flexible and appealing solution for... Read More »

• Design & Development

  NoSQL Databases May Be Your Next Competitive Advantage

  

  April 21, 2017 • Armando Roggio

  NoSQL databases offer improved performance, spur ecommerce innovation, may be less expensive than other options, and could improve management of big data. In short, your ecommerce business’s next competitive advantage... Read More »

• Design & Development

  10 Platforms to Build a Chatbot for Your Business

  

  April 17, 2017 • Sig Ueland

  Chatbots are conversational applications that can be integrated into messaging platforms to perform automated tasks, such as collecting information from customers or helping shoppers find the right products. Chatbots don’t... Read More »