Category

Design & Development

The nuts and bolts of an ecommerce site are design and development. We address design innovation and trends — including layouts, colors, photography, logos, video, and more. We explain the basics of code — HTML, CSS, JavaScript — as well as platforms, themes, plugins, open source, and related topics.

Code | Design & Dev Tools | Platforms & Apps | Schools & Resources | Typography & Fonts | User Experience

Code
CSS, JavaScript Frameworks for Ecommerce Sites in 2016

July 7, 2016 • Armando Roggio

The CSS and JavaScript frameworks an ecommerce business chooses can have a significant impact on that business’s website features, performance, and development costs. The combination of programming languages, frameworks, libraries, and ...
Design & Development
A Better Way to Store Ecommerce Product Information

July 3, 2016 • Armando Roggio

How an ecommerce site stores and accesses product information can have a significant impact on site performance. Online retail businesses, small and large, may benefit from a popular database technology that ...
Platforms & Apps
Ecommerce Product Releases: June 30, 2016

June 30, 2016 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of ecommerce-related product releases for the end of June — from companies that offer services to online merchants. There are updates regarding Pinterest, cheaper shipping rates ...
Schools & Resources
Lessons from 99 Retail Website Footers

June 29, 2016 • Armando Roggio

Stuffed full of links, contact information, legal notices, email subscription forms, and social media icons, the footer section of many ecommerce web pages might seem like pure miscellany. Nonetheless, I ...
Platforms & Apps
29 Free Joomla Resources, Extensions, Templates

June 27, 2016 • Sig Ueland

With over 68 million downloads, Joomla is the second most popular open-source content management system, behind WordPress. With over 200,000 community users and contributors, and thousands of extensions, Joomla offers ...
Code
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 ...
Platforms & Apps
Ecommerce Product Releases: June 16, 2016

June 16, 2016 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of recent ecommerce-related product releases and updates. The items offer services to online merchants of all sizes. Got an ecommerce product release? Email releases@practicalecommerce.com. Ecommerce Product Releases Slidely ...
Schools & Resources
11 New Ecommerce Books for Summer 2016

June 12, 2016 • Sig Ueland

Summer is here, which means it’s time to look at the new ecommerce books. There are titles on startup funding, being the boss, digital currencies, disruptive marketing, social media, and ...
User Experience
5 Basics to Make a Website Accessible

May 27, 2016 • Joseph C. Dolson

The topics of accessibility, screen readers, and how users interact with voice command applications can be challenging to grasp. But for 90 percent of websites, there are simple choices that ...
Code
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 ...
Design & Dev Tools
25 Free Web Design Elements, Spring 2016

May 23, 2016 • Sig Ueland

One of the easiest ways to add value to your website is to utilize free elements offered by the designer community. Design-focused websites, such as Dribble, are excellent resources for ...
Schools & Resources
7 Ecommerce Design Conventions for 2016

May 15, 2016 • Armando Roggio

Online shoppers expect ecommerce sites to follow certain design and layout conventions, including logo position and function, the placement of product navigation, and the use of a “hamburger” menu on mobile ...
Platforms & Apps
7 SaaS Subscription-billing Solutions, for 2016

May 11, 2016 • Marcia Kaplan

My 2012 article, “9 SaaS Subscription-Billing Solutions,” garnered many comments and requests for an update. So with this post, I am providing a new list of providers. This is not ...
Platforms & Apps
App Development Trends Favor Custom Ecommerce Platforms

May 1, 2016 • Armando Roggio

Application development is changing. Frameworks, services, and even tools make it possible to rapidly create web and mobile applications custom to a business’s needs. These changes mean that it may ...
User Experience
How to Measure Color Contrast, for Web Accessibility

April 28, 2016 • Joseph C. Dolson

The essence of accessible color contrast is simple. Given a foreground color and a background color, the contrast between those two must be distinguishable in a wide variety of environments,
Code
Make an Impressive Ecommerce Footer in Bootstrap

April 26, 2016 • Armando Roggio

The footer or bottom section of an ecommerce web page is often where shoppers look to find privacy policies, return information, or even a way to contact the store owner ...
Code
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,
Design & Dev Tools
19 Free Website Design Tools

April 10, 2016 • Sig Ueland

There are plenty of free tools and resources to help with your website design, whether you’re looking for a little flare or you want to build a new site from ...
Code
Build Fixed, Responsive Navigation with Bootstrap

March 31, 2016 • Armando Roggio

Bootstrap is an open-source framework for creating responsive, mobile first websites. It can help even novice developers. But many new Bootstrap users have trouble with fixed navbars — navigation headers ...
User Experience
Using Keyboard-only Navigation, for Web Accessibility

March 30, 2016 • Joseph C. Dolson

At many of the web development conferences I attend, there is a talk on how to use an integrated development environment to aid in programming. The speaker will almost invariably ...
Design & Development
5 Ways to Improve Mobile Commerce in 2016

March 24, 2016 • Armando Roggio

Mobile commerce sales accounted for about 29 percent of all ecommerce sales in 2015, according to published reports. In spite of this, many online retailers have yet to master the ...
Schools & Resources
11 New Ecommerce Books for Spring 2016

March 20, 2016 • Sig Ueland

Spring is here, which means it’s time to look at the new ecommerce books. There are titles on content marketing, crowdfunding, platform enterprises, brand identity, startup strategy, and building a ...
Code
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 ...
User Experience
How to Make Videos Accessible for Blind, Disabled Users

February 28, 2016 • Joseph C. Dolson

A video is a compelling option when you want to demonstrate a product or show off its features. But a video can cause accessibility challenges. They aren’t insurmountable, by any ...
Code
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 ...
Code
Image Recognition APIs May Help Ecommerce

February 25, 2016 • Armando Roggio

A pair of new image-analysis solutions could open the door for powerful ecommerce and retail applications that significantly improve shopping experiences or create new marketing opportunities. On Feb. 18, 2016, Google ...
User Experience
7 Mistakes to Avoid When Designing Website Forms

February 23, 2016 • Daniel Kedinger

Web forms are often one of the last things considered in a website’s design, but it is one of the ways people interact with a site most frequently. Whether it is a checkout form, registration signup, or simple contact form, the following seven web form mistakes can hurt your chances of a getting a prospective customer to do business with your company.
Design & Development
Monitor Accessibility Errors on Your Ecommerce Site with Scrapy, WAVE

February 19, 2016 • Armando Roggio

In just a few lines of code, ecommerce businesses can monitor individual store pages, searching for potential web accessibility problems that might make it difficult for shoppers with disabilities to ...
Platforms & Apps
How to Build a Small Business Website Using Squarespace

February 9, 2016 • Daniel Kedinger

Squarespace is an easy to use platform for building a small business website, to get up and running in a relatively short time frame. It contains a variety of beautifully-designed starter templates that make adding and editing content a simple procedure. Squarespace also provides an ecommerce solution, to sell products or collect donations.
User Experience
Common Web Accessibility Problems on Leading Ecommerce Sites

February 4, 2016 • Armando Roggio

From missing alternative text to redundancy, several of the Internet’s leading ecommerce sites have potential web accessibility problems, which might make it difficult for shoppers with disabilities. In the absence of ...

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