Schools & Resources
-
Schools & Resources
6 Web Design Trends for 2016
January 14, 2016 • Daniel Kedinger
Web design trends are never static but change constantly. Here are six new trends that you can expect to see in 2016.
-
Schools & Resources
10 How-to Video Examples for Merchants
November 5, 2015 • Sig Ueland
How-to videos can establish your expertise, promote your products, and entertain and inspire viewers. Here is a list of how-to videos from brands and merchants. All of these videos provide helpful ...
-
Schools & Resources
8 Digital Marketing Awards to Follow, for Inspiration
October 26, 2015 • Sig Ueland
When developing digital content for your brand, why not learn from the best? Annual digital marketing awards are good for discovering creative content and effective campaigns on the Internet. And ...
-
Schools & Resources
12 Online Marketing Courses, to Increase Your Skills
August 19, 2015 • Kathleen Fealy
It is essential to stay current with online marketing techniques and best practices in the ever-changing world of SEO, PPC, and social media. Due to time and budget considerations, local business owners, in-house staff, and digital marketers can’t always attend conferences or take outside courses. The solution is online courses that offer attendees the chance to learn on a flexible time schedule.
-
Schools & Resources
11 Website Design Galleries for Inspiration
July 30, 2015 • Sig Ueland
Website design galleries are useful for inspiration — with your own site or if you’re just a fan of great design. They can also be good resources for finding a ...
-
Schools & Resources
15 ‘Contact Us’ Pages, to Inspire
May 6, 2015 • Kathleen Fealy
Contact pages on websites are where businesses typically drop in the phone number, email address, and perhaps a contact form. Often treated as an afterthought, contact pages deserve more attention since they serve as a: Consumer resource for contacting key personnel; Lead generation touch point; Trust generating focal point.
-
Schools & Resources
15 Infographics to Improve Your Online Marketing
April 29, 2015 • Kathleen Fealy
It is often easier to process information visually than through reading. These fifteen infographics and their related articles include actionable insights that can help improve your online marketing efforts. Topics include advertising, consumer behavior, mobile, local search, email marketing, social media, and search traffic.
-
Schools & Resources
Video Styles that Attract and Convert Shoppers, for Ecommerce
April 6, 2015 • Jason Lawrence
In today’s marketing world, companies spend much time and money deciding how to create the most compelling content to promote their brands. One way to do this is with video. There ...
-
Schools & Resources
8 Common Responsive Design Mistakes
February 10, 2015 • Gagan Mehra
A mobile-optimized website is a must-have for ecommerce merchants. To achieve this, many use responsive design, which makes a site render well across multiple devices. I addressed the basics of ...
-
Schools & Resources
6 Ecommerce Design Trends for 2015
December 23, 2014 • Armando Roggio
In 2015, responsive, mobile-friendly ecommerce websites will stop being a competitive advantage and start to become a necessity for doing business online. This change will also impact how online retail ...
-
Schools & Resources
11 Sites for Ecommerce Design Inspiration
October 6, 2014 • Sig Ueland
An online merchant must be part designer — crafting and implementing all the aesthetic elements of a store. Fortunately, struggling creatives can access a variety of online resources to find ...
-
Schools & Resources
7 Ecommerce Design Trends for 2014
January 14, 2014 • Armando Roggio
As more online retailers seek to provide a good mobile shopping experience, expect to see a significant number of site redesigns in 2014. These redesigned sites are likely to follow ...
-
Schools & Resources
WordPress Accessibility Resources
December 5, 2013 • Joseph C. Dolson
WordPress is the foundation for many websites. Roughly 40 percent of the top 10,000 sites in the world use it, including ecommerce sites, blogs, major online publications, and web applications. Whether you’re ...
-
Schools & Resources
18 Resources to Make a Logo
July 8, 2013 • Sig Ueland
A logo is a way for a business to convey its identity and purpose. But hiring a designer to create a logo can be an expensive and intimidating process. There are a wide variety of online tools available to create a unique logo without spending a huge amount of money. Here is a list of ...
-
Schools & Resources
11 Sites with Great Search
May 20, 2013 • Sig Ueland
Search is a big opportunity to provide a positive shopping experience. Helping customers find what they’re looking for is a proven way to generate sales. Here is a list of sites that offer compelling search. Some of these sites provide traditional site search with advanced search opti...
-
Schools & Resources
5 Simple Ways to Make Great Product Videos
May 1, 2013 • Jason Lawrence
In "Learning from Infomercials for Product Demonstration," my article last month, I discussed the importance of product demonstration and video in selling online. This month, I’ll explain how to make product videos that get results. Given the rise in well-produced online video, it can ...
-
Schools & Resources
10 Examples of Storytelling in Web Design
March 15, 2013 • Drew Coffin
In "Storytelling in Web Design," I explained the three most basic aspects of storytelling — character, setting, and action — and offered ways to begin including storytelling in web design using basic design elements. In this article, I will examine ten sites that use storytelling and list the character, setting, and action found in each story.
-
Schools & Resources
8 Ecommerce Galleries
February 25, 2013 • Sig Ueland
Looking for ecommerce design ideas? Browse through website galleries that showcase ecommerce sites. Find examples of beautiful websites and site elements from both new and established ecommerce stores. Here is a list of inspirational galleries that showcase ecommerce sites. There are ...
-
Schools & Resources
10 Creative Contact Pages
February 21, 2013 • Drew Coffin
Contact pages facilitate questions from visitors, and otherwise help prospects locate your business or connect via social media. A well-designed, creative page with easy-to-find information encourages interactions, which can lead to sales. Here are 10 creative contact pages. Lionway...
-
Schools & Resources
5 Sins of Retail Site Design in 2013
November 20, 2012 • Armando Roggio
A great retail site design is aesthetically pleasant; it reflects current trends; and it includes the best and often latest in functionality. When these areas are ignored the resulting design can be downright sinful — even harmful to the bottom line. To some extent, site design is subj...
-
Schools & Resources
Learning from Bad Web Design
September 14, 2012 • Drew Coffin
Recognizing bad web design is often easy. But it can be difficult to know what makes it bad. In this article I will give you examples of bad web design and explain what good design practices could be used instead. Note that many of these examples are extreme cases of bad web design and there is more than one mistake in each example image.
-
Schools & Resources
16 New QR Code Campaigns in 2012
July 24, 2012 • Sig Ueland
Quick Response (QR) codes continue to appear in creative and inspired marketing promotions. Companies are finding new uses for the codes, as well as new ways to display them. Here is a list of new QR code campaigns in 2012. Some of the QR examples are remarkably inventive, such as Ema...
-
Schools & Resources
10 Photoshop Skills for Beginners
May 14, 2012 • Drew Coffin
Adobe Photoshop is an incredibly powerful program that allows you to do professional grade image manipulations and adjustments. Whether you want to work with product images or design website layouts, Photoshop has the tools you need to get the job done. However, Photoshop is so powerful...
-
Schools & Resources
Managing a Design Project When You’re Not a Graphic Artist
March 5, 2012 • Drew Coffin
Ecommerce merchants wear many hats. One of them is designing graphics for their websites. In my experience as a freelance graphic artist, I've adopted steps to help me become efficient and productive for each graphic project. I've listed those steps, below, hoping they can help non-pr...
-
Schools & Resources
SVG Images: Sources to Download, Create
January 30, 2012 • Drew Coffin
In "SVG Images: What Merchants Need to Know," I explained the difference between raster and vector images and explained how SVG images use XML to generate perfectly scalable graphics. From that article, recall that raster images can accommodate many more color variations than vector, b...
-
Schools & Resources
12 New QR Code Campaigns
November 15, 2011 • Sig Ueland
Quick Response (QR) codes continue to gain momentum in mobile commerce. As the holidays approach, a number of companies have launched QR code campaigns to boost sales, as well as promote worthy causes. Here is a list of new QR code campaigns. In addition to promoting mobile commerce, t...
-
Schools & Resources
4 Free Photoshop Alternatives: Sources to Learn
August 30, 2011 • Drew Coffin
My suggestions for free Photoshop alternatives we published earlier this month, in “4 Free Photoshop Alternatives for Image Editing.” I described four free Photoshop alternatives — GIMP, Paint.NET, Aviary, and ...
-
Schools & Resources
An Introduction to Flash Cookies; How to Manage Them
March 16, 2011 • PEC Staff
The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) proposed "Do Not Track" legislation has generated a lot of interest in how websites track visitor behavior. In this article, I am going to introduce Flash cookies and explain how they may be used to violate consumer's privacy. What Is a Flash Cookie...
-
Schools & Resources
Mobile Commerce: Four Good Examples
March 18, 2010 • Brendan Gibbons
Deciding what to do about the explosive growth of mobile traffic can be difficult. That’s why we’re bringing you some of our picks for the best of the mobile web, with mobile-optimized sites that bring a unique and useful experience for users. Some of these sites are from large retailer...
-
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...