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 & Development
Notable Ecommerce iPhone Apps
January 4, 2010 • Brendan Gibbons
Mobile ecommerce is beginning to manifest itself in several different ways. With the dramatic increase in fast, 3G cellular subscribers in the United States, a burgeoning number of users utilize mobile devices to access the Internet. Merchants should contemplate the appearance of their ...
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Platforms & Apps
The PeC Review: Use Dropbox for File Storage and Team Collaboration
January 4, 2010 • Armando Roggio
Many small and midsized ecommerce businesses use virtual offices, meaning that shipping and logistics might be in Kentucky near the FedEx hub, web development could be managed in Italy, and the online store's marketing and customer service teams may be in Oklahoma. What's more, many of...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: Kryptronic’s ClickCartPro
January 1, 2010 • Kate Monteith
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...
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Design & Development
Mobile Commerce Is Coming
December 30, 2009 • Brendan Gibbons
The iPhone and iTouch are the fastest-growing technology platforms in history. That is according to Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker, who also predicts that mobile commerce will dramatically grow in the U.S. M-commerce Around the World Japan and some Scandinavian countries are ahe...
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Cross-border Selling
Ask an Expert: European Payment Solutions
December 30, 2009 • PEC Staff
"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...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: VP-ASP Shopping Cart
December 25, 2009 • Kate Monteith
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...
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Design & Development
Quick Query: Quickoffice’s David Brennan on Mobile Office Applications
December 22, 2009 • Kevin Patrick Allen
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...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: CommerceV3
December 18, 2009 • Kate Monteith
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...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: Open Mind Commerce
December 11, 2009 • Kate Monteith
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...
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Design & Development
Where the PCI Security Council Goes Wrong
December 10, 2009 • Kevin Patrick Allen
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...
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Schools & Resources
Booklist: McAfee VP Stuart McClure
December 9, 2009 • PEC Staff
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 ...
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Design & Development
PCI Exec Suggests Payment Outsourcing for Smaller Merchants
December 8, 2009 • Kevin Patrick Allen
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...
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Design & Development
Miva Merchant Launches In-house Hosted Platform
December 7, 2009 • Kerry Murdock
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...
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Platforms & Apps
The PeC Review: Crucial Webhosting Offers Value and Service
December 4, 2009 • Armando Roggio
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...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: Shop a la Cart
December 4, 2009 • Kate Monteith
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...
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User Experience
Accessibility: How Many Disabled Web Users Are There?
December 2, 2009 • Joseph C. Dolson
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...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: PrestoStore
November 27, 2009 • Kate Monteith
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...
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Design & Development
PCI Compliance: Commonly Asked Questions
November 25, 2009 • Kevin Patrick Allen
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...
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Design & Dev Tools
The PeC Review: FormSpring for Easy Form-building
November 20, 2009 • Armando Roggio
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...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: Avactis
November 20, 2009 • Kate Monteith
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...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: Boss Cart
November 13, 2009 • Kate Monteith
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...
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User Experience
The PeC Review: MyBuys Personal Recommendations
November 6, 2009 • Armando Roggio
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...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: AdVantShop.NET
November 6, 2009 • Kate Monteith
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...
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Design & Development
How to Choose Effective Website Photos and Images. Part 1
November 3, 2009 • Sandra Niehaus
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.
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User Experience
The PeC Review: SLI Offers Superior Search
October 30, 2009 • Armando Roggio
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...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: Cartfly
October 30, 2009 • Kate Monteith
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...
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Design & Development
Spree Upgrades Its Open-source Platform; Amazon Launches PayPhrase
October 29, 2009 • Kevin Patrick Allen
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...
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Design & Development
Quick Query: Comparison-shopping for Credit Card Processors
October 26, 2009 • PEC Staff
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...
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Schools & Resources
Booklist: Braintree CEO Bryan Johnson
October 26, 2009 • PEC Staff
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...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: SEOshop
October 23, 2009 • Kate Monteith
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...