Category

Platforms & Apps

Our coverage of platforms and apps includes innovations and updates to shopping carts, content management systems, mobile shopping, digital-product selling, headless commerce, social media, and much more.

  • Platforms & Apps

    Mobile Commerce: Website or App?

    January 1, 2013 •

    According to Forrester Research, mobile commerce sales will grow from $10 billion in 2012 to $32 billion in 2016, accounting for more than 7 percent of total ecommerce sales. With the adoption of smartphones and tablets accelerating worldwide, that percentage could be even higher. For...

  • Platforms & Apps

    10 Free Content Curation Platforms

    October 8, 2012 •

    Many businesses are embracing content curation — the process of collecting, commenting on, and linking to the content of others. The premise is find relevant articles, tips and tools that your prospects and customers would find valuable, and then share them on a platform that you brand.

  • Platforms & Apps

    18 Gmail Productivity Plugins

    September 11, 2012 •

    The right plugin can transform Gmail from a standard email program into a productivity powerhouse, capable of managing your communications and professional networks. Here is a list of productivity plugins for Gmail. There are plugins to schedule emails, track correspondence, manage so...

  • Platforms & Apps

    Installing Software on Ubuntu Linux

    September 3, 2012 •

    The Ubuntu Linux software installation process is more like visiting a mobile app store than following a traditional Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac OS X process. “On Windows, you might have to root around on a website to find an .exe file to download or go to a store and buy a CD with ...

  • Platforms & Apps

    The Benefits of an Integrated Ecommerce System

    August 30, 2012 •

    Editor's Note: This is part one of a three-part series on the benefits of an integrated, all-in-one ecommerce platform. The second installment is "Defining Your Integrated System Requirements." The third is "Choosing an Integrated Ecommerce System; 4 Steps." I am consulting with a com...

  • Platforms & Apps

    Touring the Ubuntu Unity Desktop

    August 27, 2012 •

    Ubuntu 12.04 is an alternative to the Microsoft Windows and Apple OS X operating systems. It features a functional and intuitive desktop environment. Ubuntu's Unity desktop has similarities to both Windows and OS X, meaning that users considering the switch to Ubuntu should not have m...

  • Platforms & Apps

    17 Ecommerce Themes for OpenCart

    August 20, 2012 •

    OpenCart is an open-source shopping cart system that is feature-rich and user-friendly, with a large variety of payment gateways and shipping method integrations. OpenCart features many high-quality ecommerce themes to ...

  • Platforms & Apps

    Microsoft Office Alternatives for Ubuntu Linux

    August 13, 2012 •

    Maintaining spreadsheets, composing business documents, or even building slide-style presentations are a mainstay of modern business, including small and mid-sized online retail operations that often depend on the Microsoft Office suite to compete these tasks. The dependency on Office ...

  • Platforms & Apps

    16 Responsive Ecommerce Themes on WordPress

    August 6, 2012 •

    Responsive design allows a business to reach computers, tablets and smartphones from a single website. Here is a list of responsive themes on WordPress for ecommerce sites. Many of these themes are designed to be used with specific ecommerce plugins. All are premium themes, though r...

  • Platforms & Apps

    Automating Social Media Posts with Dlvr.it

    May 23, 2012 •

    Social media campaigns have become a mainstay of ecommerce marketing. Even the smallest of online retailers are likely to have a Facebook page and a Twitter account, and there are indications that social engagement may improve shopper relations and, possibly, sales. But the process of ...

  • Platforms & Apps

    Bing Goes Social with New Redesign

    May 15, 2012 •

    Microsoft's Bing search engine will get a major redesign in the next month, extending the tool's integration with Facebook and introducing a new feature to help searchers get more done. “In 2009, we launched Bing with a simple proposition: people should expect more from a search engine...

  • Platforms & Apps

    13 Timekeeping Apps for Small Businesses

    December 21, 2011 •

    Time is a precious commodity, particularly for entrepreneurial small-business owners that have to manage it themselves. Whether for billing or keeping yourself accountable, there are a number of mobile apps to measure your time. Here is a list of mobile apps to manage time. There are t...

  • Platforms & Apps

    10 Great Licensed Shopping Carts

    December 19, 2011 •

    Licensed ecommerce platforms are often the most flexible and powerful "shopping carts" available to online retailers, but they can demand more in terms of expenses and development time. Licensed shopping carts — or, perhaps more accurately, ecommerce platforms — are hosted on a merchan...

  • Platforms & Apps

    8 Great SaaS Shopping Carts

    December 9, 2011 •

    Hosted, software-as-a-service (SaaS) ecommerce solutions allow small online retailers to open functional online stores with a minimum in capital expense. While there are many good SaaS shopping carts on the market in the end of 2011, here are eight carts that are among my personal favor...

  • Platforms & Apps

    15 Mobile Apps for Holiday Shopping

    November 17, 2011 •

    There are many mobile apps to assist consumers with holiday shopping. There are deals and rewards apps, price comparison apps, and to-do and shopping assistant apps. Here's a list of 15 mobile apps that assist consumers. Review these apps to see the mobile-shopping options your cus...

  • Platforms & Apps

    7 Worthy Magento Extensions

    November 11, 2011 •

    Ecommerce merchants often add features and functions to their sites to increase sales and performance. In this article, you'll find seven worthy extensions for Magento — the ecommerce platform — that address common ecommerce-related tasks. Some of these work best with the free Magento ...

  • Platforms & Apps

    An Overview of Magento Go

    November 7, 2011 •

    Magento Go is the software-as-a-service ecommerce platform from Magento, a leading open-source ecommerce solution. Magento Go may be an attractive choice for some online merchants. SaaS or hosted ecommerce platforms generally offer a few advantages for merchants. First, many of the he...

  • Platforms & Apps

    10 App Marketplaces for Open Source Shopping Carts

    October 26, 2011 •

    Many open source shopping carts can be customized with extensions or modules, created by an active developer community. Here is a list of app-extension marketplaces and libraries for open source shopping cart platforms. Most of the platforms are free. The extensions are both free and ...

  • Platforms & Apps

    The 10 Best Blogging Platforms in 2011

    October 5, 2011 •

    Online merchants are competing for customer attention and loyalty in an Internet landscape where people create their autobiographies across social networks and businesses have to discover a reason to be relevant in that narrative. Blogging, which some suggest is a waning art for indivi...

  • Platforms & Apps

    18 Useful Extensions for OpenCart

    September 30, 2011 •

    OpenCart is a leading open-source ecommerce platform. With nearly 3,000 free and premium extensions available, OpenCart is also feature-rich and highly customizable. Here is a list of extensions to tailor your OpenCart site. There are extensions to enhance your cart’s functionality, pr...

  • Platforms & Apps

    9 Online Tools to Plan Your Physical Event

    September 28, 2011 •

    I recently compiled a list — "16 Live Meeting and Webinar Platforms" — of webinar platforms to reach a broad online audience. But if you’re holding a physical event, such as a conference, you can still find planning resources you need online. Here is a list of sites to help you plan...

  • Platforms & Apps

    11 Online Meeting Planners

    September 14, 2011 •

    Online scheduling sites offer a simple way to schedule your next meeting. Pick your range of dates on the app's calendar, then notify the other meeting attendees so they can pick the dates that work for them. View the responses, and you’re done. No more wasting time searching for a time...

  • Platforms & Apps

    15 Productivity Apps for Your Google Chromebook

    August 15, 2011 •

    Google Chromebook and its browser-as-operating-system approach to computing have put the spotlight on web-based applications. The Chromebook's Chrome OS represents a completely new approach to computing. On a traditional Mac or Windows-based computer, there is the operating system on t...

  • Platforms & Apps

    Goodsie Helpful for Beginning Entrepreneurs

    July 21, 2011 •

    A new ecommerce platform helps novice ecommerce entrepreneurs get up and running quickly, but it limits choices and, perhaps, creates some marketing challenges. Goodsie — which costs $15 per month — uses a simple web interface and a well-defined set of options to help would-be merchant...

  • Platforms & Apps

    15 Mobile Retail Apps that Enhance Customer Experiences

    June 24, 2011 •

    Retail businesses are building mobile apps that do much more than just display products for sale. Mobile apps can shape the in-store experience, empower the purchasing process, and create interesting and dynamic ways to interact with the customer. Here is a list of mobile apps created ...

  • Platforms & Apps

    34 Ecommerce Themes for WordPress

    June 22, 2011 •

    A WordPress ecommerce theme can take a regular blog and transform it into a dazzling online storefront. Find the theme that’s right for you, then customize it to create your unique store. This is a list of ecommerce themes for WordPress. There are free themes, if you’re just getting st...

  • Platforms & Apps

    20 QR Code Tools and Uses

    June 16, 2011 •

    With quick response codes, businesses and organizations are finding new ways to deliver information and interact with consumers. When you scan a QR code with your smartphone application, you can receive product information. But QR codes can also link to web content, video, social medi...

  • Platforms & Apps

    25 Great Magento Themes

    June 15, 2011 •

    Magento is one of the most popular ecommerce platforms with thousands of live shops, including major retailers. The platform, which eBay recently purchased, also has a vibrant developer community that creates easy-to-integrate themes and modules. In this article, you find a list of 25 ...

  • Platforms & Apps

    35 Android Apps to Run Your Business

    June 10, 2011 •

    In this mobile world, iPhone gets all the love. There are over 400,000 different apps for Apple’s iOS, compared to approximately 200,000 apps for Google’s Android OS. However, according to a recent study by mobile analytics group Distimo, there are now more free apps available for Andro...

  • Platforms & Apps

    24 Ecommerce Plugins for WordPress

    June 2, 2011 •

    Once WordPress was just a place to blog. Then came over fourteen thousand plugins. Today WordPress is a highly customizable platform, with everything you need to run your ecommerce business. Here is a list of 24 plugins to help you run your business on WordPress. These plugins will hel...

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