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.

Design & Development
Web Graphics: Why Are We So Limited?

September 1, 2005 • PEC Staff

As a Web designer and developer, I have worked with graphics in a variety of formats. Anybody who uses Adobe Photoshop – the standard for design production in the interactive business – has learned his or her way around JPG, GIF, TIF, EPS, PSD, PCX and BMP files. Those types of files s...
Platforms & Apps
How to Choose a Shopping Cart

September 1, 2005 • Michael A. Cox

Mark Baartse has identified 137 different shopping carts. Baartse tries to identify which are the best for the myriad applications required in the ecommerce industry.
Design & Dev Tools
Preventative Maintenance

July 1, 2005 • Pamela Hazelton

I spend just as much time troubleshooting Miva Merchant issues as I do customizing storefronts. I've found that no matter how much you foolproof something, someone out there can, and will, find a way to break its functionality. Fortunately, users of Miva Merchant often need only follow ...
Platforms & Apps
How Does Shopping Cart Software Work?

January 15, 2004 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

A "shopping cart" has come to mean either an online ordering system or a store-building system. An online ordering system will do fine for a few products, but a store builder is essential for 50 or 1,000 or 100,000.
Code
HTML E-Mail: Text Font Readability Study

March 1, 2001 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

In February 2001 my Doctor Ebiz readers patiently answered survey after survey to help me determine what they considered the most readable fonts and sizes for HTML e-mail. While this may come as no surprise to you, it is causing me to change my standards.
Design & Development
Setting Newsletter Ad Rates

March 15, 2000 • Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

"How much should I charge for ads in my e-mail newsletter, especially a narrowly-targeted newsletter where it's pretty obvious who the interested advertisers would be." -- Charlie Darling