Page 107 – Practical Ecommerce

Category

Amazon & Marketplaces
Ecommerce Briefs: Walmart, Whole Foods, Target, Shipt

December 21, 2017 • Marcia Kaplan

“Ecommerce Briefs” is my occasional series of news and developments from online merchants. In this installment, I’ll address the continuing omnichannel wars between Walmart and Amazon as well as some ...
SEO
Voice SEO: What Marketers Know Now

December 20, 2017 • Armando Roggio

How should your business optimize for voice search? The answer may be that the search engine optimization community doesn’t really know yet. In fact, perhaps the best thing your marketing department ...
Platforms & Apps
Pros and Cons of Hosted Ecommerce Platforms

December 19, 2017 • Eric Davis

I’ve addressed different options to host the code for your ecommerce site. In “Don’t Self-host an Ecommerce Store,” I addressed the risk and expense of owning and managing web servers.
Email & Text Marketing
3 Email Tactics to Make Life Easier for Shoppers

December 19, 2017 • Carolyn Nye

As consumers progress through life stages, their shopping priorities change. A recent college graduate is likely concerned with price. A seasoned corporate executive may focus on quality. The visitors to ...
Business
4 Challenges for Mid-market Ecommerce in 2018

December 18, 2017 • Armando Roggio

Changes in shopper behavior, improvements in technology, and pricing policies meant to “protect” small, brick-and-mortar retailers all represent significant challenges to mid-market ecommerce and mid-market omnichannel retail businesses in 2018. These ...
Design & Dev Tools
10 Tools to Improve Online User Experiences

December 18, 2017 • Sig Ueland

User experience design is the process of improving the interaction between a consumer and a product. For online merchants, UX design tools can help get early feedback on a website ...
SEO
How SEO Impacts the Ecommerce Sales Funnel

December 17, 2017 • Jill Kocher Brown

Ecommerce marketers spend a lot of time thinking about the sales funnel. Search engine optimization plays a major role in filling that funnel at the various stages. In aggregate, we can ...
Platforms & Apps
Ecommerce Product Releases: December 15, 2017

December 15, 2017 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of recent product releases and updates for December, from companies that offer services to online merchants. There are updates on email marketing, same-day delivery, one-click purchasing,
Conversion
Encourage After-Christmas Customer Reviews

December 14, 2017 • Armando Roggio

Customer reviews may boost ecommerce conversion rates and make product pages more findable on search engines. Combine this fact — that reviews improve search engine optimization and conversions — with the ...
Finance
11 Mistakes to Avoid When Seeking Business Financing

December 14, 2017 • Marcia Kaplan

Obtaining funding for your business, whether it’s new or established, can be grueling and frustrating. Success is not a certainty. But you can increase your chances of securing funds if ...
Amazon & Marketplaces
Align with Amazon’s strategy for marketplace success

December 13, 2017 • Phil Masiello

Sometimes it seems that Amazon doesn’t support sellers in its marketplace. Seemingly nonstop restrictions on what can be sold in each category make it difficult for some sellers to list ...
Google Ads
AdWords: 3 Ways to Find Negative Keywords

December 12, 2017 • Robert Brady

Inside every AdWords account there is a report that shows the exact words (a “query”) that searchers typed into Google before clicking on a specific ad. It’s called the Search ...
Shipping & Fulfillment
Does U.S. Postal Service Subsidize China-based Merchants?

December 12, 2017 • Kerry Murdock

Merchants in certain countries, such as China, can ship very cheaply to U.S. consumers with rates that are unavailable to U.S. merchants.
Content Marketing
5 Content Marketing Ideas for January 2018

December 11, 2017 • Armando Roggio

The beginning of a year represents new opportunities for content marketers. In January, help potential customers get started on their new hobbies and activities, celebrate one of the greatest Americans,
Finance
17 Cryptocurrency Plugins for WordPress

December 11, 2017 • Sig Ueland

Cryptocurrencies have garnered much attention recently off of Bitcoin's meteoric rise in value — currently around $15,000. The Chicago Board Options Exchange has even launched futures contracts on Bitcoin for investors to bet on the currency’s rise and fall. While Bitcoin's volatility won’t necessarily attract users, cryptocurrencies offer low-cost peer-to-peer aspects that should be appealing to both merchants and consumers.
Analytics & Data
Google Analytics: Using Enhanced Ecommerce to Grow Revenue

December 10, 2017 • Morgan Jones

Reporting on overall revenue and revenue by channel is among the most essential data for a niche ecommerce company to grow its business. Google Analytics has a powerful revenue-reporting suite ...
Staffing
For SEO, Better to Hire an Agency or an Employee?

December 8, 2017 • Jill Kocher Brown

The decision to hire in-house search engine optimization talent or to contract with an agency is not easy. Consider these points when deciding for your company. In-house SEO In-house advantages stem primarily ...
Product Pages
7 Ways to Capture Last-minute Holiday Sales

December 6, 2017 • Pamela Hazelton

Monday, Dec. 11, will mark the busiest shopping day of the year for many online retailers. “Green Monday” typically takes place the second Monday of December. The term was coined by ...
Cross-border Selling > Merchant Voice
Made in Russia: 8 brands for cross-border consumers

December 6, 2017 • Maksim Komonov

Exports from Russia consist mostly of natural resources — oil, gas, wood, gems, uranium. Russian consumer goods such as apparel, jewelry, and electronics do not have strong positions on the ...
Product Pages
4 Ways to Jazz-up Product Descriptions (without Hype)

December 5, 2017 • Marcia Yudkin

According to Karon Thackston, author of Amazon Advantage: Product Listing Strategies to Boost Your Sales, successful ecommerce merchants avoid hype. Moreover, Amazon’s official terms of service for sellers forbid the ...
Design & Dev Tools
20 Free Web Design Tools for Fall 2017

December 4, 2017 • Sig Ueland

Utilizing free resources from the design community is a good way to add value to your website. Here is a list of new web tools and design elements from fall 2017.
Influencers & Affiliates
Affiliate Marketing Report Card: WP Engine

December 4, 2017 • Greg Hoffman

This installment of “Affiliate Marketing Report Card” reviews WP Engine, a global WordPress hosting platform. WP Engine has a powerhouse affiliate program listed at number 38 in the ShareASale Top ...
Platforms & Apps
Ecommerce Product Releases: December 3, 2017

December 3, 2017 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of product releases and updates for late November from companies that offer services to online merchants. There are updates on augmented reality, chat apps, WordPress themes,
Technical SEO
SEO: For Redesigns and Migrations, Prepare for the Worst

December 1, 2017 • Jill Kocher Brown

You spend months preparing for your ecommerce redesign or migration. You take search engine optimization into consideration and anticipate an increase in organic search traffic after launch. But what happens ...
Business > Merchant Voice
Why can’t Australians purchase gift cards from U.S. merchants?

November 30, 2017 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

The Black Friday-Cyber Monday sales phenomenon is beginning to make an impact online and in brick-and-mortar stores, in Australia. Five years ago, inspired by the U.S. Cyber Monday sales, Click Frenzy ...
Finance
Sales Report: 2017 Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday

November 30, 2017 • Marcia Kaplan

Robust growth marked holiday ecommerce revenue on 2017 Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, bringing some much-needed cheer to nervous merchants. With sellers starting discounts earlier and extending them ...
Business
November 2017 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts

November 30, 2017 • PEC Staff

What follows are our 10 most popular articles for November 2017, recognizing that articles we published earlier in the month are more likely to make the list than later ones. 5
Shipping & Fulfillment
5 Ways to Improve the Parcel Delivery Experience

November 29, 2017 • Manish Chowdhary

“The last mile” is now the Holy Grail of ecommerce shipping. A merchant can do an amazing job of selling and provide an outstanding shopping experience, yet if the package ...
Content Marketing
5 Content Marketing Trends to Try in 2018

November 29, 2017 • Armando Roggio

The line, if there is one, between content marketing and publishing will continue to blur in 2018, as businesses produce high-quality articles, books, and broadcasts to attract, engage, and retain ...
Amazon & Marketplaces > Merchant Voice
Every Amazon A-Z claim is a failure in customer service

November 28, 2017 • Richard Stubbings

Every Amazon A-Z claim is a failure in customer service. I could have avoided every one of the claims filed against my company, no matter how unfair it was. An Amazon ...