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

User Experience
Understanding ARIA, for Web Accessibility

September 1, 2016 • Joseph C. Dolson

If you research web accessibility, you’re likely to run into ARIA — Accessible Rich Internet Applications. Some will call it the solution to all web accessibility issues. Others will condemn ...
Schools & Resources
27 Free Web Design Elements, Summer 2016

August 28, 2016 • Sig Ueland

Enhance your website with free elements from the designer community. Design-focused websites, like Dribbble and Behance, provide plenty of access to high-quality elements, with lots of freebies. Here is a list ...
Design & Development
Build a Responsive, Mobile-first Cart Page with Bootstrap

August 25, 2016 • Armando Roggio

An ecommerce shopping cart page is most naturally a display of tabular data, listing the title and price for each item a shopper has selected. But HTML tables can be ...
Platforms & Apps
Ecommerce Product Releases: August 16, 2016

August 16, 2016 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of recent ecommerce-related product releases and updates for mid-August — from companies that offer services to online merchants. There are updates on social media stories and ...
Design & Development
Make Animated GIFs in Adobe Photoshop CC

August 2, 2016 • Armando Roggio

Social media networks, including Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook, have sparked an animated GIF renaissance. More than a few online retailers are regularly posting GIF animations to attract and engage potential customers. Marketers ...
Platforms & Apps
Ecommerce Product Releases: Aug. 1, 2016

August 1, 2016 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of recent ecommerce-related product releases and updates for late July — from companies that offer services to online merchants. There are updates on live chat solutions,
Platforms & Apps
What Flavor Is Your Shopping Cart?

July 27, 2016 • Armando Roggio

Ecommerce platforms are software solutions that make it possible to build an online store, display products, and complete transactions over the Internet. In spite of a relatively simple definition, these ...
Design & Dev Tools
20 Free Design Tools for Ecommerce Merchants

July 25, 2016 • Sig Ueland

Whether building an ecommerce store from scratch or just freshening its look, merchants can find plenty of help with free online design tools. Here is a list of free online design ...
Code
How Databases Work with Ecommerce Applications

July 21, 2016 • Eric Davis

“Database-backed.” “Powered by PostgreSQL.” “Cloud database.” “Redundant, multi-zone NoSQL backend.” Those are all terms that describe ecommerce systems that use databases. But, what, exactly, do those terms mean? Is it good ...
Platforms & Apps
Ecommerce Product Releases: July 17, 2016

July 17, 2016 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of recent ecommerce-related product releases and updates for mid-July, from companies that offer services to online merchants. There are updates regarding Amazon Prime Day, ecommerce in ...
Schools & Resources
To Improve SEO, Understand How It Works

July 15, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown

Search engine optimization isn’t a mystical dark art. It boils down to signals of relevance and authority. Understanding the signals that search engines interpret as relevance and authority is key ...
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 ...

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