Page 126 – Practical Ecommerce

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Business > Merchant Voice
A tale of two domain purchases

August 31, 2016 • Peter Keller

We’ve all been there. We have a great idea for a company and we log on to a domain registrar. We type our dream domain name, hit enter, and bam. Someone is sitting ...
Analytics & Data
Google Analytics: Using Site Search Data to Grow Revenue

August 31, 2016 • Morgan Jones

Do you wonder how people navigate to find products on your ecommerce site? What about visitors that hit just one or two pages and then leave, without buying anything? Did they ...
Payments
Why Do Credit Card Providers Offer Flat Rate Processing?

August 30, 2016 • Phil Hinke

Many readers gave good feedback on my recent 3-part series on partnering with credit card salespeople. I will be addressing this feedback in upcoming articles. A few merchants sent me their provider’s email response after ...
Social Media
5 Twitter Lessons from Well-known Retailers

August 30, 2016 • Armando Roggio

Many well-known retail brands use Twitter to connect with shoppers, offer deals, and market the items they sell. Those brands can inspire small retail businesses to market with Twitter, too. For some ...
Influencers & Affiliates
4 Misconceptions with Affiliate Marketing

August 29, 2016 • Carolyn Kmet

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing channel. The direct selling cost occurs only when a transaction, lead, or other pre-defined activity happens. Affiliate marketing therefore has one of the lowest ...
B2B
B2B Ecommerce: Pros and Cons of SaaS Platforms

August 29, 2016 • Lori McDonald

Software-as-a-service ecommerce platforms are gaining market share. They have clear benefits, but they also have limitations, especially for B2B companies. SaaS platforms — hosted carts — charge a monthly fee ...
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 ...
Analytics & Data
SEO: Measuring Performance of the Long Tail

August 26, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown

The long tail should drive most of the natural search performance for ecommerce companies. But whether it actually does is another matter. Don’t assume that the long tail is working for you ...
Business
10 Great Ecommerce Ideas for August 2016

August 26, 2016 • Nic Murdock

Practical Ecommerce periodically asks industry insiders to share a great, innovative idea that could help an ecommerce company. Here’s what ten of them had to say for the August 2016
Design & Development
Build a Responsive, Mobile-first Cart Page with Bootstrap

August 25, 2016 • Armando Roggio

An ecommerce shopping cart page is most naturally a display of tabular data, listing the title and price for each item a shopper has selected. But HTML tables can be ...
Google Ads
How to Spy on Your PPC Competitors

August 25, 2016 • Robert Brady

The ecommerce industry is highly competitive. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the area of pay-per-click advertising. With heavyweights like Amazon and Ebay spending millions of dollars on PPC,
Local Business
Managing a Local Web Presence from an iPhone

August 24, 2016 • Bill Hartzer

I’m used to sending and receiving email directly on my iPhone. I don’t need my laptop to respond to someone. In fact, I sometimes go most of the day without ...
Email & Text Marketing
What to Include in Automated Emails, for Ecommerce

August 23, 2016 • Pamela Hazelton

Business owners typically despise chain emails. We delete most “template” emails — such as pitching services — within seconds. When it comes to ecommerce, though, stock messages can help increase sales. Yes,
Content Marketing > Merchant Voice
The ultimate content marketing strategy

August 22, 2016 • Eric Bandholz

The idea of using content to help drive ecommerce sales can sometimes feel daunting. Today’s digital landscape is a 24-hour news cycle, with social media platforms that never sleep. Content ...
Local Business
How to Bring Online Shoppers into Physical Stores

August 22, 2016 • Armando Roggio

Brick-and-click retailers, those with physical stores and an online shop, can use the rich data ecommerce provides to encourage online shoppers to visit the retailers’ physical stores or pop-up shops. Many ...
SEO
SEO: Why Your Long Tail Isn’t Long

August 19, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown

The long tail of natural search should drive more traffic and sales than the head. Unfortunately, a site’s strategy, architecture, and implementation often cut the long tail short of its full ...
Social Media
10 Brands on Snapchat, for Innovative Marketing

August 19, 2016 • Sig Ueland

Once an app novelty for kids, Snapchat has become an established social media platform — recently valued at over $16 billion — for brands to engage 100 million followers in ...
Email & Text Marketing
4 Email Marketing Tips for the Holidays

August 18, 2016 • Carolyn Nye

The holidays start early for ecommerce retailers. Planning for a successful holiday season typically starts in the summer. In this article, I’ll explore four tips for ecommerce merchants to help ...
Customer Retention
Using Referral Marketing to Fuel Ecommerce Subscriptions

August 17, 2016 • Armando Roggio

When your subscribers refer your ecommerce subscription service, they are helping your business grow. Both the customers who refer your products and the referred customers they bring in are likely ...
Amazon & Marketplaces
In Acquiring Jet, Walmart Seeks Younger, Higher-income Consumers

August 16, 2016 • Marcia Kaplan

Last week Walmart purchased online merchant Jet for $3 billion in cash plus up to $300 million in Walmart shares to Jet founders. While this is a lot of money,
Platforms & Apps
Ecommerce Product Releases: August 16, 2016

August 16, 2016 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of recent ecommerce-related product releases and updates for mid-August — from companies that offer services to online merchants. There are updates on social media stories and ...
Email & Text Marketing
How to Think Like an Email Spammer

August 15, 2016 • Armando Roggio

Sending folks useless or unwanted emails may seem intuitive. But if you really want to infuriate and violate, you’ll need a plan. And remember, only a tiny percentage of the ...
Business
How to Protect against Scraping of Prices, SKUs

August 15, 2016 • John Di Giacomo

Many ecommerce merchants offer a substantial number of SKUs through their stores. Inputting those SKUs into a database can be a time and labor intensive process. It can also be ...
Business
Ecommerce in Brazil Growing Despite Economic Crisis

August 14, 2016 • Alice Wakai

An economic and political crisis has hit Brazil during the last few years. Because of rising unemployment and high inflation, Brazilian consumer consumption has greatly decreased. According to Brazil’s National ...
Business > Merchant Voice
Insurance and other boring (but crucial) expenses

August 12, 2016 • Richard Stubbings

There is a temptation for many start-up businesses to cut corners and spend all of their money on inventory. After all, it is the stock that sells, which brings in the ...
Keyword Research
SEO: How to Maximize the Long Tail

August 12, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown

Ecommerce sites are naturally suited to target the long tail of organic search performance. How you optimize your site determines how long its tail could be. The long tail of search ...
Local Business
How to Encourage Reviews of Your Local Business

August 11, 2016 • Bill Hartzer

When it comes search engine results for local businesses, one of the major factors that influence searchers is the number and quality of reviews. A restaurant listing with a limited number of reviews, no ...
Cross-border Selling
Ecommerce in Israel: Cross Border Shopping Dominates

August 10, 2016 • Marcia Kaplan

With a population of 8.2 million, Israel may not seem like a particularly lucrative ecommerce market. However because of unique domestic circumstances, Israel is an excellent candidate for cross border ...
Social Media
Integrate Social Channels to Increase Conversions

August 10, 2016 • Pamela Hazelton

Facebook is steadily becoming a go-to platform for finding products online. That’s because the social network reaches more than 80 percent of Internet users, even if they primarily use Facebook ...
Shipping & Fulfillment
For Holiday Ecommerce Fulfillment, Success Starts in August

August 9, 2016 • Armando Roggio

To be successful during the short, high pressure Christmas shopping season this year, ecommerce retailers should plan now to make certain they have the products shoppers want and that they ...