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

Design & Dev Tools
5 Tools to Personalize your Marketing Efforts

July 25, 2013 • Jerry Jao

In "8 Tools to Personalize your Ecommerce Site," I discussed methods to customize visitors' experiences on your website. In this article, I'll list five tools to help personalize your advertising and marketing efforts. PadiAct Not everyone is going to buy from you on the first visit....
Design & Dev Tools
8 Tools to Personalize your Ecommerce Site

July 23, 2013 • Jerry Jao

Personalizing an ecommerce site doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. Often, it’s just about finding the right tool, implementing it on your site, and letting the software do its magic. If you’re thinking about adding more personalization features, the following tools and services ...
Design & Development
Mobile Ecommerce Sites Should Be Fast and Robust

July 22, 2013 • Armando Roggio

Internet users, and online shoppers specifically, want fast and robust online experiences regardless of whether they are using a desktop computer or the most basic smartphone. Ecommerce businesses competing in this era of the emerging mobile web must take steps to provide useful and ric...
Schools & Resources
18 Resources to Make a Logo

July 8, 2013 • Sig Ueland

A logo is a way for a business to convey its identity and purpose. But hiring a designer to create a logo can be an expensive and intimidating process. There are a wide variety of online tools available to create a unique logo without spending a huge amount of money. Here is a list of ...
Platforms & Apps
Ecommerce Platforms: Design Control vs. Ease of Launching

July 3, 2013 • Armando Roggio

Online shoppers judge an Internet retailer’s trustworthiness and a product’s value based, at least in part, on how good a site or product detail page looks. Given its importance, one might think that design control would be an essential part of every available ecommerce platform. But ma...
Platforms & Apps
4 Comment Systems: Pros and Cons

June 27, 2013 • Drew Coffin

In “What to Look for in a Comment System,” I described features like comment moderation, analytics, social integration, and dashboard settings. In this post I will review four popular comment systems and discuss the highlights of each.
Platforms & Apps
Multichannel Case Study: Gap Inc.

June 21, 2013 • Dale Traxler

As a small online retailer, you may ignore the strategies of larger, multichannel brands. But if you investigate what these larger companies are doing to deliver a consistent multichannel experience, you will learn how to compete with them. If your operations are online only, you risk ...
Schools & Resources
14 New Ecommerce Books for Summer 2013

June 17, 2013 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of new ecommerce and Internet-marketing books for summer 2013. There are new titles on digital marketing, A/B testing, search engine optimization, inbound content marketing, mobile commerce, email strategies, social influence, and drop shipping. I compiled the list usin...
Design & Dev Tools
19 Free Design Tools for Your Website

May 29, 2013 • Sig Ueland

If you have a small business website, chances are you can use all the free design help you can get. Here is a list of tools and resources to help you with website design. There are font, icon and image tools, as well as audio and video applications. Also there are resources to give you ideas and generate your design inspiration. All of these tools are free.
Design & Dev Tools
21 Free Tools to Open a WordPress Shop

May 27, 2013 • Sig Ueland

WordPress is a free content management system with an abundance of free plugins and themes to launch and manage an ecommerce shop. If you’re looking for an inexpensive and flexible solution to test the ecommerce waters, WordPress might be right for you. Here is a list of free tools to...
Design & Development
3-part Mobile Commerce App Strategy

May 23, 2013 • Armando Roggio

Purchases from smartphones and tablets reached $5.9 billion in the U.S. for the first three months of this year. comScore and the U.S. Commerce Department each reported that mobile commerce sales, excluding things like groceries, airplane tickets, and automobiles, accounted for 11 perce...
Schools & Resources
11 Sites with Great Search

May 20, 2013 • Sig Ueland

Search is a big opportunity to provide a positive shopping experience. Helping customers find what they’re looking for is a proven way to generate sales. Here is a list of sites that offer compelling search. Some of these sites provide traditional site search with advanced search opti...
User Experience
Optimizing an Ecommerce Site for Mobile Shopping

May 14, 2013 • Armando Roggio

Improving how quickly a page loads and how easy it is to use that page once it has loaded might be one of the most important things online merchants can do to help tablet and smartphone shoppers and take part in the mobile commerce trend. Mobile commerce may have reached between $5.7 a...
Business
Adding Alternative Payment Methods to your Online Store

May 13, 2013 • Dale Traxler

Many established merchants offer payment methods in addition to credit cards. The most popular alternative by far is PayPal, but there are other options, too. In my experience, adding a single alternative payment method that allows shoppers to avoid using a credit cards is a good idea. ...
User Experience
Case Study: Shopping for Frisbee Golf Disks on an iPhone

May 9, 2013 • Dale Traxler

In "Mobile Commerce Grows 31 Percent in Q1," Contributing Editor Armando Roggio addressed the rapid growth of mobile commerce. Following from his article, I experimented with various ecommerce sites, to better understand the status of mobile shopping today. Since much of the growth is a...
Schools & Resources
Reading List: Vendio’s Mike Effle

May 9, 2013 • PEC Staff

In “Reading List,” we ask ecommerce professionals to name some of their favorite books and blogs and tell us why they read them. For this installment, we corresponded with Mike ...
Design & Development
Mobile Commerce Grows 31 Percent in Q1

May 7, 2013 • Armando Roggio

Mobile ecommerce sales rose 31 percent in the first quarter of 2013 as tablet-fueled, couch commerce is rapidly becoming the most popular form of online shopping with the so-called multi-channel shopper. Data from the IBM Online Retail Index and the U.S. Department of Commerce suggeste...
Design & Dev Tools
15 Easy Mobile App Solutions

May 6, 2013 • Sig Ueland

Mobile apps can be easy to make. With the variety of mobile app builders to choose from, even non-coders can build their own mobile apps with ease — from basic catalogs to complex utilities. Here is a list of solutions to build your own mobile app. These tools are primarily for users w...
Design & Development
3 Important Mobile Commerce Trends

April 26, 2013 • Armando Roggio

Tablet-based purchases, an explosion in video watching, and shopping activity of men are among the hottest mobile commerce trends that could impact how online retailers market and sell. Mobile commerce — mcommerce — is the fastest growing retail segment as more shoppers make purchases...
Schools & Resources
Reading List: Rama Ramakrishnan of CQuotient

April 25, 2013 • PEC Staff

In “Reading List,” we ask ecommerce professionals to name some of their favorite books and blogs, and tell us why they read them. For this installment, we corresponded with Rama ...
Design & Dev Tools
11 Free Screencasting Tools

April 22, 2013 • Kevin Webster

Screencasts are an effective way to promote your products or services. As a video tutorial, a product demonstration, or for reviewing the strengths of your company, screencasts offer substantial benefits.
Platforms & Apps
25 Apps for Dropbox

April 15, 2013 • Sig Ueland

Dropbox is a cloud-storage service. Similar to Google Drive and SkyDrive, Dropbox lets you access and sync files across all your devices. While Dropbox only offers 2GB of initial free storage — Google Drive offers 5GB, SkyDrive offers 7GB — it expands free storage for completing a few s...
Design & Development
How to Choose Colors for Your Ecommerce Site

April 9, 2013 • Ezra Firestone

I often ask ecommerce owners about the color choices for their stores. Most say, “I like these colors and thought they would look nice,” or “My designer came up with it.”
Schools & Resources
17 Education Sites for Web Merchants

April 8, 2013 • Sig Ueland

Web merchants wear many hats, such as entrepreneur, marketer, accountant, and technologist. If you need help developing some of your ecommerce skills, there are plenty of free resources available online. Here is a list of education sites for ecommerce entrepreneurs. These sites provid...
Platforms & Apps
4 Reasons Every Retailer Should Have a Mobile App

April 3, 2013 • Armando Roggio

Mobile applications resonate with shoppers, are easy to implement, come with a variety of abilities and purposes, and are becoming the standard for online retailers. There are at least four reasons nearly every retailer should offer a mobile application. Mobile commerce is among the fa...
Design & Development
7 Ways Mobile Commerce Will Change Retail

March 28, 2013 • Armando Roggio

As the online and offline worlds converge, mobile commerce has the potential to eclipse desktop-based ecommerce and, perhaps, even replace a significant portion of traditional retail shopping. Mobile-driven online sales in the U.S. are expected to reach $2.12 billion in 2013 and explod...
Schools & Resources
15 New Ecommerce Books for Spring 2013

March 25, 2013 • Sig Ueland

Spring is here and so are new ecommerce books. Here is a list of new ecommerce and Internet-marketing books for spring 2013. There are new titles on creating viral content, delivering customer support, emulating the success of business mavericks and top brands, and several books on soci...
Schools & Resources
Reading List: Retention Science’s Jerry Jao

March 21, 2013 • PEC Staff

In “Reading List,” we ask ecommerce professionals to name some of their favorite books and blogs and tell us why they read them. For this installment, we corresponded with Jerry ...
User Experience
How to Make your Site Mobile Friendly, Part 1

March 20, 2013 • Kathleen Fealy

According to a recent study from Pew Internet & American Life Project, 46 percent of Americans use smartphones. Small to medium-size businesses are searching for cost-effective solutions for capturing this audience and for making their websites more mobile-friendly.
Schools & Resources
10 Examples of Storytelling in Web Design

March 15, 2013 • Drew Coffin

In "Storytelling in Web Design," I explained the three most basic aspects of storytelling — character, setting, and action — and offered ways to begin including storytelling in web design using basic design elements. In this article, I will examine ten sites that use storytelling and list the character, setting, and action found in each story.

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