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
  • Cross-border Selling

    Ask an Expert: European Payment Solutions

    December 30, 2009 •

    "Ask an Expert" is an occasional feature where we ask ecommerce experts questions from online merchants. For this installment, we address a question concerning European payment solutions from Rashda Ali, commercial manager, Europe, with Comvita.com, a New Zealand-based retailer of healt...

  • Platforms & Apps

    Cart of the Week: VP-ASP Shopping Cart

    December 25, 2009 •

    There are more than 350 online shopping carts. And each week we feature one, interviewing both the cart's developer and a customer. "Cart of the Week" is not a review or an evaluation, but rather an opportunity to learn about a shopping cart from the people who build it and use it. Thi...

  • Design & Development

    Quick Query: Quickoffice’s David Brennan on Mobile Office Applications

    December 22, 2009 •

    The days of being tied to a desktop computer are long gone. Ecommerce merchants can work wirelessly with laptop computers, personal digital assistants, and increasingly, smart mobile phones. Quickoffice is a Texas-based software company that focuses on providing mobile office software...

  • Platforms & Apps

    Cart of the Week: CommerceV3

    December 18, 2009 •

    There are more than 350 online shopping carts. And each week we feature one, interviewing both the cart's developer and a customer. "Cart of the Week" is not a review or an evaluation, but rather an opportunity to learn about a shopping cart from the people who build it and use it. Thi...

  • Platforms & Apps

    Cart of the Week: Open Mind Commerce

    December 11, 2009 •

    There are more than 350 online shopping carts. And each week we feature one, interviewing both the cart's developer and a customer. "Cart of the Week" is not a review or an evaluation, but rather an opportunity to learn about a shopping cart from the people who build it and use it. Thi...

  • Design & Development

    Where the PCI Security Council Goes Wrong

    December 10, 2009 •

    While conducting interviews with numerous PCI compliance experts for a series of articles on Practical eCommerce, one thing about PCI compliance has become clear. No one seems to be able to address the issue of enforcement. For example, if I’m a merchant who is found to be PCI non-com...

  • Schools & Resources

    Booklist: McAfee VP Stuart McClure

    December 9, 2009 •

    In “Booklist” we ask Internet professionals about the books and blogs they read, and why. For this list, we asked Stuart McClure, vice president and general manager risk and compliance unit ...

  • Design & Development

    PCI Exec Suggests Payment Outsourcing for Smaller Merchants

    December 8, 2009 •

    Editor’s note: Payment Card Industry compliance is a requirement for virtually all ecommerce merchants. But it’s also a complicated and confusing topic. With that in mind, Practical eCommerce is publishing a series of articles aimed at answering merchants' questions on the issue. In...

  • Design & Development

    Miva Merchant Launches In-house Hosted Platform

    December 7, 2009 •

    The evolution of Miva Merchant continues. The shopping cart was first launched in 1995 as "HTML Script." It then renamed itself Miva and quickly gained market share in the late 1990s, largely by selling licensed copies to hosting companies. The company suffered with the first dot-com...

  • Platforms & Apps

    The PeC Review: Crucial Webhosting Offers Value and Service

    December 4, 2009 •

    Most small-to-midsized online retailers don’t own their own web servers. Instead,these companies rent space on servers at data centers around the globe—a practice we commonly call “web hosting.” An online merchant’s web host can have a significant effect on business success. For examp...

  • Platforms & Apps

    Cart of the Week: Shop a la Cart

    December 4, 2009 •

    There are more than 350 online shopping carts. And each week we feature one, interviewing both the cart's developer and a customer. "Cart of the Week" is not a review or an evaluation, but rather an opportunity to learn about a shopping cart from the people who build it and use it. Thi...

  • User Experience

    Accessibility: How Many Disabled Web Users Are There?

    December 2, 2009 •

    Ecommerce merchants spend a lot of time thinking about statistics. They try to gauge who is visiting their website, what products consumers are most interested in, and how consumers are finding those products. Without knowing about their audience, merchants have a difficult time marketi...

  • Platforms & Apps

    Cart of the Week: PrestoStore

    November 27, 2009 •

    There are more than 350 online shopping carts. And each week we feature one, interviewing both the cart's developer and a customer. "Cart of the Week" is not a review or an evaluation, but rather an opportunity to learn about a shopping cart from the people who build it and use it. Thi...

  • Design & Development

    PCI Compliance: Commonly Asked Questions

    November 25, 2009 •

    Editor’s note: Payment Card Industry compliance is a requirement for virtually all ecommerce merchants. But it's also a complex and difficult topic to understand. With that in mind, Practical eCommerce is teaming with Coalfire IT Audit and Compliance, a firm expert in PCI matters, in a...

  • Design & Dev Tools

    The PeC Review: FormSpring for Easy Form-building

    November 20, 2009 •

    Read any online marketing book, blog, or journal—Practical eCommerce included—worth its salt, and you’ll be told to “know your customer.” In ecommerce, getting to know your customer and building rapport with that customer takes time. It also takes an exchange of information that is of...

  • Platforms & Apps

    Cart of the Week: Avactis

    November 20, 2009 •

    There are more than 350 online shopping carts. And each week we feature one, interviewing both the cart's developer and a customer. "Cart of the Week" is not a review or an evaluation, but rather an opportunity to learn about a shopping cart from the people who build it and use it. Thi...

  • Platforms & Apps

    Cart of the Week: Boss Cart

    November 13, 2009 •

    There are more than 350 online shopping carts. And each week we feature one, interviewing both the cart's developer and a customer. "Cart of the Week" is not a review or an evaluation, but rather an opportunity to learn about a shopping cart from the people who build it and use it. Thi...

  • User Experience

    The PeC Review: MyBuys Personal Recommendations

    November 6, 2009 •

    Offering shoppers personalized product recommendations can increase conversion rates and profits while fending off shopping cart abandonment. Onsite product merchandising—the idea of cross-, up-, and down-selling to shoppers—is a potent tool for ecommerce marketers that often takes th...

  • Platforms & Apps

    Cart of the Week: AdVantShop.NET

    November 6, 2009 •

    There are more than 350 online shopping carts. And each week we feature one, interviewing both the cart's developer and a customer. "Cart of the Week" is not a review or an evaluation, but rather an opportunity to learn about a shopping cart from the people who build it and use it. Thi...

  • Design & Development

    How to Choose Effective Website Photos and Images. Part 1

    November 3, 2009 •

    Not all images are created equal. The right image on a web page can capture attention, inform, and even persuade your site visitors. The right image can communicate who you and your company are more quickly and powerfully than words alone can do.

  • User Experience

    The PeC Review: SLI Offers Superior Search

    October 30, 2009 •

    Research indicates that as many as 60 percent of online shoppers use a merchant's search feature to navigate the website. With so many potential customers typing keywords rather than using a site's navigation hierarchy, advanced search features are not just nice to have. They are a comp...

  • Platforms & Apps

    Cart of the Week: Cartfly

    October 30, 2009 •

    There are more than 350 online shopping carts. And each week we feature one, interviewing both the cart's developer and a customer. "Cart of the Week" is not a review or an evaluation, but rather an opportunity to learn about a shopping cart from the people who build it and use it. Thi...

  • Design & Development

    Spree Upgrades Its Open-source Platform; Amazon Launches PayPhrase

    October 29, 2009 •

    Spree, the open source ecommerce shopping cart, and Amazon.com have both announced new products in time for the holiday shopping season. Spree is an ecommerce platform using the Ruby on Rails programming language. New features include coupon and discount support and an improved system...

  • Design & Development

    Quick Query: Comparison-shopping for Credit Card Processors

    October 26, 2009 •

    The merchant account business is confusing for many ecommerce merchants. Many of them simply use the merchant account and payment gateway providers offered by their hosted solutions without much questioning whether the fees and rates are competitive. PCI compliance is another confusin...

  • Schools & Resources

    Booklist: Braintree CEO Bryan Johnson

    October 26, 2009 •

    In "Booklist," we ask Internet professionals to name books they believe are useful resources for ecommerce merchants. For this installment, we asked Bryan Johnson, the CEO and founder of Braintree Payment Solutions. Braintree provides online credit card payment processing and PCI compl...

  • Platforms & Apps

    Cart of the Week: SEOshop

    October 23, 2009 •

    There are more than 350 online shopping carts. And each week we feature one, interviewing both the cart's developer and a customer. "Cart of the Week" is not a review or an evaluation, but rather an opportunity to learn about a shopping cart from the people who build it and use it. Thi...

  • Schools & Resources

    Booklist: MailChimp Co-founder Ben Chestnut

    October 20, 2009 •

    In Booklist we ask ecommerce personalities about the books they read and what they like about them. For this list we asked Ben Chestnut, co-founder of MailChimp, a self-service email marketing firm. As the MailChimp website explains, the company was built on the pragmatic notion tha...

  • Platforms & Apps

    The PeC Review: TrialPay Creates Additional Revenue

    October 16, 2009 •

    A payment and promotion platform originally built to boost conversion rates for merchants selling downloadable software may also help all types of online retailers increase sales. If your typical affiliate marketing program had a hip big brother, his name would be TrialPay. Aimed at cu...

  • Platforms & Apps

    Cart of the Week: ClearCart

    October 16, 2009 •

    There are more than 350 online shopping carts. And each week we feature one, interviewing both the cart's developer and a customer. "Cart of the Week" is not a review or an evaluation, but rather an opportunity to learn about a shopping cart from the people who build it and use it. Thi...

  • Platforms & Apps

    ProStores, Magento Add Features to Existing Platforms

    October 14, 2009 •

    ProStores, the eBay-owned hosted shopping cart, and Magento, the open-source ecommerce platform, have both announced new upgrades to their existing products. ProStores Adds Feeds, Other Features ProStores has added five primary enhancements to its cart. They are: Feeds to theFind.c...

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