Schools & Resources
Our schools and resources coverage explores sources to help merchants improve their ecommerce skills. We look at helpful books, podcasts, blogs, tutorials, courses, YouTube channels, and more.
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Schools & Resources
27 Free Web Design Elements, Summer 2016
August 28, 2016 • Sig Ueland
Enhance your website with free elements from the designer community. Design-focused websites, like Dribbble and Behance, provide plenty of access to high-quality elements, with lots of freebies. Here is a list ...
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Schools & Resources
To Improve SEO, Understand How It Works
July 15, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown
Search engine optimization isn’t a mystical dark art. It boils down to signals of relevance and authority. Understanding the signals that search engines interpret as relevance and authority is key ...
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Schools & Resources
Lessons from 99 Retail Website Footers
June 29, 2016 • Armando Roggio
Stuffed full of links, contact information, legal notices, email subscription forms, and social media icons, the footer section of many ecommerce web pages might seem like pure miscellany. Nonetheless, I ...
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Schools & Resources
11 New Ecommerce Books for Summer 2016
June 12, 2016 • Sig Ueland
Summer is here, which means it’s time to look at the new ecommerce books. There are titles on startup funding, being the boss, digital currencies, disruptive marketing, social media, and ...
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Schools & Resources
7 Ecommerce Design Conventions for 2016
May 15, 2016 • Armando Roggio
Online shoppers expect ecommerce sites to follow certain design and layout conventions, including logo position and function, the placement of product navigation, and the use of a “hamburger” menu on mobile ...
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Schools & Resources
11 New Ecommerce Books for Spring 2016
March 20, 2016 • Sig Ueland
Spring is here, which means it’s time to look at the new ecommerce books. There are titles on content marketing, crowdfunding, platform enterprises, brand identity, startup strategy, and building a ...
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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.
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Schools & Resources
13 New Ecommerce Books for Winter 2016
December 20, 2015 • Sig Ueland
It’s time to look at the new ecommerce books for winter 2016. There are titles on content strategy, mobile marketing, building a business plan, design theory, launching small startups and ...
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Schools & Resources
15 Helpful Forums for Online Merchants
November 30, 2015 • Sig Ueland
Online merchants often work alone or in small teams, particularly when starting out. However, merchants can find help from many of their peers in online forums. Here is a list of ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Schools & Resources
11 New Ecommerce Books for Fall 2015
September 17, 2015 • Sig Ueland
Autumn is here. Here is a list of new ecommerce books for fall 2015. There are titles on branding, online ratings, contest theory, social media, attracting new business, management principles,
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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.
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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 ...
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Schools & Resources
13 New Ecommerce Books for Summer 2015
June 19, 2015 • Sig Ueland
Summer is here. Don’t forget to bring new ecommerce books with you to the beach. Here is a list of new ecommerce and Internet-marketing books for summer 2015. There are ...
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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.
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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.
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Schools & Resources
15 New Ecommerce Books for Spring 2015
March 22, 2015 • Sig Ueland
Spring is here. Here is a list of new ecommerce and Internet-marketing books for spring 2015. There are new titles on digital currency, Google Analytics, peer-to-peer economics, tax and legal ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Schools & Resources
13 New Ecommerce Books for Winter 2015
December 15, 2014 • Sig Ueland
Celebrate the holidays with new ecommerce books. Here is a list of new ecommerce and Internet-marketing books for winter 2015. There are new titles on big data, cryptocurrency, content marketing,
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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 ...
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Schools & Resources
16 New Ecommerce Books for Fall 2014
September 21, 2014 • Sig Ueland
Fall is here. The students are back in school, and the new ecommerce books are on the shelves. Here is a list of new ecommerce books for fall 2014. There ...
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Schools & Resources
10 Google Tools and Resources for Entrepreneurs
September 7, 2014 • Sig Ueland
This summer Google launched Google My Business, a platform for businesses to manage their presence across Google applications, including search and Google+. The new platform is just one more example ...
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Schools & Resources
12 New Ecommerce Books for Summer 2014
June 23, 2014 • Sig Ueland
Summer is the time to check out new ecommerce books. Here is a list of new ecommerce and Internet-marketing books for summer 2014. There are new titles on social media ...
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Schools & Resources
11 New Ecommerce Books for Spring 2014
March 24, 2014 • Sig Ueland
At last, spring is here. Here is a list of new ecommerce and Internet-marketing books for spring 2014. There are new titles on content marketing, entrepreneurship, web psychology, small business ...
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Schools & Resources
Reading List: Web Retailer’s Andy Geldman
February 4, 2014 • PEC Staff
In “Reading List,” we ask ecommerce professionals to name some of their favorite books and blogs, and tell us why they read them. For this installment, we corresponded with U.K.-based ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Schools & Resources
16 Free Online Tools for Small Businesses
November 25, 2013 • Sig Ueland
Whether you’re starting a small business or you’re just thrifty, you can likely benefit from some free online productivity tools. Here is a list of online productivity tools for small businesses.