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
The Shopping Experience: Newegg
August 28, 2009 • Armando Roggio
Newegg, the second largest ecommerce retailer in the U.S., provided a flawless shopping experience that made it easy to understand why the company has become one of the most trusted and respected electronics retailers, bar none. Newegg set an excellent example of how online retailers c...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: GoEmerchant
August 28, 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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Schools & Resources
The PeC Review: “Online Marketing Inside Out” Is a Helpful Book
August 26, 2009 • Armando Roggio
Boiled down to its essence, ecommerce is really about marketing. In the brick-and-mortar world, a small retailer might have a half-dozen competitors citywide, and location, longevity, and luck can be as important as marketing. For example, there is a small, dirty bike shop I know that ...
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Design & Development
Web Design Tips: Three Ecommerce Web Design Trends
August 25, 2009 • Armando Roggio
Like fashion and architecture, web design enjoys an ever changing ebb and flow as trends become popular, become mainstream, and then become passé. To maintain a modern and aesthetically-pleasing look, web designers should examine current trends, estimate their staying power, and impleme...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: Beanbasket
August 21, 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 & Dev Tools
Five SEO Mantras for Website Redesign
August 18, 2009 • Jill Kocher Brown
I’m often asked to make search engine optimization recommendations during a site’s redesign process. From the clients' points of view, they’re making a major investment and they need to safeguard their existing SEO success in addition to growing their natural, post-launch search traffic...
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Platforms & Apps
Twenty Design Examples of Magento Commerce-based Stores
August 14, 2009 • Armando Roggio
Magento Commerce is perhaps the most popular open-source ecommerce platform available today because of its rich feature set, excellent backend, and extremely flexible theme structure. Magento's theme structure is of particular interest to ecommerce web designers because it allows for a...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: Fortune3
August 14, 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 and the Checkout Process
August 11, 2009 • Joseph C. Dolson
A crucial element of any ecommerce website is the ability for all customers to complete a purchase on the site, including those with disabilities. If a potential customer cannot navigate your online store's shopping cart or checkout process, it makes little difference what kind of acces...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: CS-Cart
August 7, 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
The PeC Review: Silkfair Is An Easy and Flexible eCommerce Platform
August 5, 2009 • Armando Roggio
The Silkfair marketplace and ecommerce platform gives small ecommerce entrepreneurs an easy to use and flexible solution. It could have some online merchants selling in less than an hour without a single dime in out of pocket costs. Silkfair's market shops, which are somewhat analogo...
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User Experience
The Shopping Experience: Gap.com
July 31, 2009 • Armando Roggio
The Gap.com provides a positive online shopping experience that emanates professionalism, trustworthiness, and quality. But it is an experience that even small ecommerce businesses can emulate. In 1996, the actress Sharon Stone wore a black Gap turtleneck to Hollywood's grandest gala, ...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: Modular Merchant
July 31, 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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Code
Web Design Tips: jQuery UI Accordion Widget
July 30, 2009 • Armando Roggio
Adding an interactive accordion widget to your ecommerce site can provide a great design feature that conveys professionalism and makes your content more readable. There are plenty of instances in website design when we would like to have a lot of content on a page, but, unless you are...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: KonaKart
July 24, 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 built it and use it. Thi...
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Design & Dev Tools
The PeC Review: Use 99 Designs for Crowd-sourced Graphics
July 23, 2009 • Armando Roggio
The appearance of your online store matters. Customers use a store's logo and website design to judge its trustworthiness and professionalism. But ecommerce storeowners and managers are businesspeople, not necessarily graphic or web designers. So their expertise is in merchandising, bu...
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Platforms & Apps
Ecommerce Know-How: Should You Host Your Own Website?
July 22, 2009 • Armando Roggio
For some ecommerce businesses, operating an in-house HTTP server and the associated server software can improve website performance, increase data security, and lower overall costs. But hosting your site yourself is not for everyone. Ecommerce businesses rely on the Internet. It is the...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: Squirrelcart
July 17, 2009 • Kate Monteith
There are more than 350 online shopping carts. And each week we feature one, interviewing both the cart's developer or management 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 an...
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Schools & Resources
The PeC Review: “The Unofficial Magento User Guide” Helpful for Novices
July 16, 2009 • Armando Roggio
Magento Commerce, the open source ecommerce platform, has a massive following and an engaged development community. So it is no surprise that one of its devotees has released an unofficial users' guide designed to help do-it-yourselfers implement this powerful platform. James D. Ballo...
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Design & Development
Thirteen Great Flash-based Ecommerce Sites
July 15, 2009 • Armando Roggio
The Adobe Flash platform is bringing stunning new examples of rich media to ecommerce sites. New site design techniques make Flash, Flex, and ActionScript, all from Adobe, very viable choices for adding video, audio, or just plain aesthetic awesomeness to any website's design. In this ...
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Platforms & Apps
Google Operating System May Speed Mobile Ecommerce
July 13, 2009 • Armando Roggio
Google recently announced that it had begun work on a computer operating system that might accelerate interest in the popular mobile Internet device market. Mobile Internet devices (MIDs), which are sometimes called netbooks, are physically small and application-lite laptop computers d...
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Schools & Resources
Ten Inspiring Ecommerce Site Designs
July 10, 2009 • Armando Roggio
Creating a great (and successful) ecommerce site requires a mix of terrific products, strong marketing, informative content, and strong site aesthetics. In this article, I have located ten ecommerce sites that offer inspiration for the site aesthetics portion of this mixture. Certa...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: Vendio
July 10, 2009 • Kate Monteith
There are more than 350 online shopping carts. And each week we feature one, interviewing both the cart's developer or management 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 an...
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Code
Web Design Tips: Mobilizing Your Site Using CSS
July 8, 2009 • Armando Roggio
With a second style sheet and minor changes to a page's HTML, many online stores can offer an excellent mobile shopping experience without creating a second web page or registering a mobile specific domain. Mobile Internet use is on the rise. And online merchants presumably want to pro...
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Platforms & Apps
Ecommerce Know-How: Mobile Commerce in Four Steps
July 7, 2009 • Armando Roggio
Internet-enabled mobile handsets, mobile Internet devices, and new wireless broadband standards are all making it easier for consumers to shop online while on the move. So, is your store ready to serve these mobile customers? In the evolution of modern shopping, consumers have very rec...
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Schools & Resources
The PeC Review: MIT OpenCourseWare A Great Educational Resource
July 6, 2009 • Armando Roggio
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the leading universities in the world, offers free online courses that can provide ecommerce business owners and managers with MBA-quality course material. MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) provides open access to the MIT faculty’s course ...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: Tiger Commerce
July 3, 2009 • Kate Monteith
There are more than 350 online shopping carts. And each week we feature one, interviewing both the cart's developer or management 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 an...
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Design & Dev Tools
The Shopping Experience: Icon Dock Excels at Downloadable Graphics
July 2, 2009 • Armando Roggio
Icon Dock is a beautifully designed, easy-to-use online retailer specializing in downloadable, vector graphic icons. Each month, Practical eCommerce sends me shopping. I make a purchase from a real online merchant—like Icon Dock—and report back to you about the overall checkout process,...
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User Experience
Web Accessibility and the Law
June 30, 2009 • Joseph C. Dolson
The state of legal requirements and protections concerning the accessibility of websites is far from uniform. Many countries have some form of web accessibility laws in place, but the extent of those laws is radically variable. Furthermore, as many websites serve multiple countries, the...
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Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: Tradingeye
June 26, 2009 • Kate Monteith
At Practical eCommerce, we are aware of more than 350 online shopping carts. And each week we feature one, interviewing both the cart's developer or management and a customer. "Cart of the Week" is not a review or an evaluation, but rather an opportunity to learn about a shopping cart f...