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
Crawl Your Ecommerce Site with Python, Scrapy

February 1, 2016 • Armando Roggio

Ecommerce business owners and managers have many good reasons to crawl their own websites, including monitoring pages, tracking site performance, ensuring the site is accessible to customers with disabilities, and ...
Design & Development
15 Questions to Ask a Web Designer

January 26, 2016 • Daniel Kedinger

If you are looking for a web designer to help with your next small business website, ask the following questions, to avoid major issues during the project.
Design & Dev Tools
6 Online Appointment Scheduling Tools, for Service Businesses

January 20, 2016 • Kathleen Fealy

Online appointment scheduling tools provide efficient, practical, and profitable solutions for consulting and professional service businesses to manage their customer, vendor, and prospect communications. Schedulers are appearing on "contact us" forms, support pages, and services forms throughout the web.
Schools & Resources
6 Web Design Trends for 2016

January 14, 2016 • Daniel Kedinger

Web design trends are never static but change constantly. Here are six new trends that you can expect to see in 2016.
Design & Development
Google Analytics: How to Create Dashboard Overviews

January 7, 2016 • Sharon Mostyn

Dashboards provide an efficient way to review your Google Analytics data. By combining relevant data into a dashboard, you can quickly and easily make determinations about your website's performance.
Design & Development
6 Things to Look for in a Web Developer’s Portfolio

January 6, 2016 • Armando Roggio

Hiring a web or application developer to build your ecommerce site or money-generating mobile application can be a challenge, especially if you do not know what skills or experience the ...
Design & Dev Tools
2016 Online Marketing Checkup: 10 Tasks, Tools, Guides

January 6, 2016 • Kathleen Fealy

January is the perfect time to make improvements to your online marketing plan or implement a particular strategy to benefit your business, both in the long and short term. Having a solid foundation as you begin the year will help your business grow and compete more effectively.
Design & Development
13 Infographics to Kickoff Your 2016 Marketing Plans

December 23, 2015 • Kathleen Fealy

It’s time to plan your 2016 marketing calendar and make decisions about which strategies to implement. This collection of 13 infographics serves as a quick reference guide to concepts such as 2016 marketing trends, social network image sizes, AdWords optimization techniques, social media engagement practices, and more. Use it to spark new ideas and see where business opportunities exist.
Schools & Resources
13 New Ecommerce Books for Winter 2016

December 20, 2015 • Sig Ueland

It’s time to look at the new ecommerce books for winter 2016. There are titles on content strategy, mobile marketing, building a business plan, design theory, launching small startups and ...
User Experience
Strategies for Website Accessibility, for Ecommerce

December 14, 2015 • Armando Roggio

Goodwill, smart business, and even vague governmental regulation should compel ecommerce businesses to make websites accessible to all potential customers, including those who are blind or deaf or have other ...
Typography & Fonts
20 Emoji Tools and Resources, for Marketing

December 7, 2015 • Sig Ueland

If you need any convincing that emoji pictographs are relevant to communication, Oxford University Press has announced its Word of the Year is the “Face With Tears of Joy” emoji.
Schools & Resources
15 Helpful Forums for Online Merchants

November 30, 2015 • Sig Ueland

Online merchants often work alone or in small teams, particularly when starting out. However, merchants can find help from many of their peers in online forums. Here is a list of ...
Design & Development
5 Ecommerce Site Design Trends for 2016

November 8, 2015 • Armando Roggio

In 2016, ecommerce websites may start to look a lot more alike as designers use a similar set of user interface design patterns, employ cards and card-like layouts, and even ...
Schools & Resources
10 How-to Video Examples for Merchants

November 5, 2015 • Sig Ueland

How-to videos can establish your expertise, promote your products, and entertain and inspire viewers. Here is a list of how-to videos from brands and merchants. All of these videos provide helpful ...
Design & Development
Designing Banner Ads for Ecommerce Marketers

November 2, 2015 • Armando Roggio

Successful online banner ads feature clear and concise creative content that often expresses a single idea about a single product. For online sellers, a well-planned and well-designed banner ad may ...
Platforms & Apps
10 New, Free Ecommerce Themes for WordPress

November 2, 2015 • Sig Ueland

With an abundance of free themes available, WordPress is an ideal platform to start your ecommerce store — without breaking the bank. Here is a list of new ecommerce themes for WordPress.
Schools & Resources
8 Digital Marketing Awards to Follow, for Inspiration

October 26, 2015 • Sig Ueland

When developing digital content for your brand, why not learn from the best? Annual digital marketing awards are good for discovering creative content and effective campaigns on the Internet. And ...
Design & Development
3 Ways to Use ‘Haul’ Videos in Ecommerce Marketing

October 18, 2015 • Armando Roggio

According to Google, about 40 percent of shoppers who watch “haul” videos — which are a sort of show-and-tell for shoppers — will go to a store’s website or physical ...
Design & Development
4 Ways to Improve Ecommerce Security for the Holidays

October 13, 2015 • Armando Roggio

Site security is an important part of running an online retail business. Before the holiday shopping season arrives and your online store experiences increased traffic, it is important to check ...
Schools & Resources
11 New Ecommerce Books for Fall 2015

September 17, 2015 • Sig Ueland

Autumn is here. Here is a list of new ecommerce books for fall 2015. There are titles on branding, online ratings, contest theory, social media, attracting new business, management principles,
Platforms & Apps
16 Mobile Apps for Networking Events

September 7, 2015 • Sig Ueland

Conferences and industry events, such as Practical Ecommerce’s upcoming Ignite 2015, are not only opportunities to learn from the experts, but also ideal places to network with peers. Loading your ...
Design & Development
3 Google Sheets Functions to Track Competitors, More

September 1, 2015 • Armando Roggio

Google Sheets can monitor competitors’ prices, capture news headlines, and devour data from websites, CSV files, and more. The tool helps small business owners and marketers gain a competitive advantage. Google ...
Platforms & Apps
14 Tools for Collaborative Brainstorming

August 24, 2015 • Sig Ueland

Harness the creativity of your team with online collaboration tools. Brainstorm and visualize ideas together, regardless of location. Here is a list of tools for collaborative brainstorming. There are online whiteboards ...
Schools & Resources
12 Online Marketing Courses, to Increase Your Skills

August 19, 2015 • Kathleen Fealy

It is essential to stay current with online marketing techniques and best practices in the ever-changing world of SEO, PPC, and social media. Due to time and budget considerations, local business owners, in-house staff, and digital marketers can’t always attend conferences or take outside courses. The solution is online courses that offer attendees the chance to learn on a flexible time schedule.
Typography & Fonts
Choosing the Right Font for Your Website

August 18, 2015 • Daniel Kedinger

Choosing the right font for your website not only impacts how visitors feel about your site but also how they comprehend your content. Picking the right font is also a way of deciding how you want visitors to perceive and understand your company. Different fonts convey distinct emotions and can provide site visitors with a clear sense of your company culture and professionalism just as quickly as when using colors or graphics.
Platforms & Apps
17 Call-to-action Plugins for WordPress

August 17, 2015 • Sig Ueland

If you have a website or blog on WordPress, a call-to-action plugin can help you grab the attention of your visitors and help them to take action. Use call-to-action elements ...
Design & Development
Apple.com Redesign Pushes Ecommerce Site Trends

August 14, 2015 • Armando Roggio

Apple’s August 2015 website redesign emphasizes visual communication and advances several site design trends. Large photographs, meaningful graphics, and useful video abound. When Apple.com relaunched on August 6, 2015, many ...
Platforms & Apps
How to Keep Your WordPress Site Safe from Hackers

August 6, 2015 • Daniel Kedinger

Once open-source software becomes the most widely used content management system on the Internet, it will undoubtedly also become a target for hackers.
Schools & Resources
11 Website Design Galleries for Inspiration

July 30, 2015 • Sig Ueland

Website design galleries are useful for inspiration — with your own site or if you’re just a fan of great design. They can also be good resources for finding a ...
Design & Development
Monitor Competitor Prices with Python and Scrapy

July 29, 2015 • Armando Roggio

Monitoring competitors’ prices and product lineups can help online retailers win pricing battles; optimize sales and special offers; and track product trends over time. For many small ecommerce businesses, however, keeping tabs on the competition is a painful, manual process.

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