Page 127 – Practical Ecommerce

Category

Content Marketing
5 Content Marketing Ideas for September 2016

August 8, 2016 • Armando Roggio

Ecommerce marketers can use content to connect with customers and prospects in September 2016, offering up compelling videos, shopping guides, seasonal how-to articles, or celebrating holidays like Talk Like a ...
Conversion
Google Analytics: 4 New Reports for SEO

August 7, 2016 • Brad Booth

In May 2016, Google Analytics launched new reports for analyzing organic search traffic. Now you can view search engine data and Google Analytics data side-by-side, in the same report, to ...
On-page SEO
SEO: Every Page Is an Entry Page

August 5, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown

Every page of your site is an entry page for natural search. Are all of your pages ready to welcome searchers? All shoppers want something. They may not want to buy ...
Business
Olympic Committees Seek to Restrict Content Marketing, Social Media

August 5, 2016 • Armando Roggio

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) are warning athletes and businesses not to use Olympic trademarks in content and social media marketing. The Olympics are ...
Content Marketing
3 Easy (and Slightly Radical) Ways a Headline Can Spark Content Marketing

August 4, 2016 • Armando Roggio

Turn content marketing creation on its proverbial head and generate great content marketing ideas from killer headlines with these easy tricks. If you asked two professional writers whether you should write ...
Analytics & Data
Using Google Analytics to Optimize Bing Ads, Other Channels

August 3, 2016 • Morgan Jones

Ecommerce merchants strive to optimize their returns on investment from advertising. Google Analytics can help, with its integration to Google AdWords that allows ecommerce sites to view advertising spend, revenue, and ...
Design & Development
Make Animated GIFs in Adobe Photoshop CC

August 2, 2016 • Armando Roggio

Social media networks, including Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook, have sparked an animated GIF renaissance. More than a few online retailers are regularly posting GIF animations to attract and engage potential customers. Marketers ...
Platforms & Apps
Ecommerce Product Releases: Aug. 1, 2016

August 1, 2016 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of recent ecommerce-related product releases and updates for late July — from companies that offer services to online merchants. There are updates on live chat solutions,
Google Ads
Are AdWords Default Settings Hurting Your Campaigns?

August 1, 2016 • Robert Brady

I recently read Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, a book by behavioral economist Richard Thaler and legal scholar Cass Sunstein. It’s an intriguing read for anyone desiring ...
Business
July 2016 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts

August 1, 2016 • PEC Staff

Here are our 10 most popular articles for July 2016, recognizing that articles we published earlier in the month are more likely to make the list than later ones. Using Pokémon ...
Marketing & Advertising
A Brief Guide to Contrarian Ecommerce Marketing

July 31, 2016 • Armando Roggio

Search engine optimization, paid search advertising, and digital banner advertising are among the most popular forms of ecommerce marketing, but they may not be the most effective for every business.
Business > Merchant Voice
Comparing puppies to customers

July 29, 2016 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

Last month, my husband and I began raising a black Labrador puppy. Next year, we will give one-year-old Whimsy to Guide Dogs Victoria for intensive training to help assist a person ...
Content Marketing
SEO: Creating Great Content for Ecommerce

July 29, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown

Creating great content is hard. Creating it so that it also benefits search engine optimization isn’t that much more difficult. My last two articles, “To Improve SEO, Understand How It ...
Google Ads > Merchant Voice
Our experiment in eliminating AdWords

July 29, 2016 • Peter Keller

Back in the day, I managed a $500,000 annual pay-per-click advertising budget for CompactAppliance.com, a retailer of small-space appliances. That business was built on the pillars of PPC ads and ...
Payments
Partnering with Credit-card-processing Salespeople, Part 3: Weeding Out Unacceptable Parties

July 28, 2016 • Phil Hinke

When soliciting and evaluating a request for proposal for a client’s credit card processing, I always let the client include any provider or salespeople she wants. Clients often want to ...
Business > Merchant Voice
From Magento to WooCommerce, 1 year on

July 27, 2016 • Richard Stubbings

Just over a year ago, I moved my website from Magento to WooCommerce. I described my process of evaluating and, ultimately, selecting WooCommerce in a 5-part series here on Practical ...
Platforms & Apps
What Flavor Is Your Shopping Cart?

July 27, 2016 • Armando Roggio

Ecommerce platforms are software solutions that make it possible to build an online store, display products, and complete transactions over the Internet. In spite of a relatively simple definition, these ...
Content Marketing
5 Rules for Publishing Accessible Content

July 27, 2016 • Joseph C. Dolson

Creating a website that’s fully accessible to disabled users is typically a collaborative effort. You can hire the best teams of designers and developers, but if you don’t provide content ...
Influencers & Affiliates
Affiliate Marketing: Advanced Commission Structures

July 26, 2016 • Carolyn Kmet

One of the first questions retailers ask when launching an affiliate marketing channel is “what should my commission structure be?” My advice is to research what competitors and retailers in ...
Customer Service
Boost Conversions with SMS Messaging

July 26, 2016 • Pamela Hazelton

Many restaurant chains rely on SMS (text) messaging to entice customers. The text messages typically include a link to a special graphic, accompanied by textual content and a special code.
Content Marketing
For Content Marketing, Use History

July 25, 2016 • Armando Roggio

Stories are engaging. People love listening to a well-told tale. Just ask anyone who has ever binged watched a series on Netflix, Hulu, or the History channel. For content marketers,
Design & Dev Tools
20 Free Design Tools for Ecommerce Merchants

July 25, 2016 • Sig Ueland

Whether building an ecommerce store from scratch or just freshening its look, merchants can find plenty of help with free online design tools. Here is a list of free online design ...
B2B
5 Types of B2B Product Data That Improve Online Sales

July 24, 2016 • Lori McDonald

Sometimes B2B companies invest in a highly functional ecommerce site and fail to use good product data. Shoppers don’t buy from websites if they don’t have the information they need to ...
Link Building
SEO: Content Is King but Links Are Gold

July 22, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown

Creating compelling, customer-centric content isn’t enough to win rankings and shoppers. Without a strong internal linking structure, even the best content will still fail to perform in natural search. The three ...
Code
How Databases Work with Ecommerce Applications

July 21, 2016 • Eric Davis

“Database-backed.” “Powered by PostgreSQL.” “Cloud database.” “Redundant, multi-zone NoSQL backend.” Those are all terms that describe ecommerce systems that use databases. But, what, exactly, do those terms mean? Is it good ...
Business
Learning from 10 Types of Ecommerce Competitors

July 21, 2016 • Armando Roggio

Knowing your competition can help your ecommerce business discover opportunities, avoid mistakes, and differentiate. With this in mind, it can be a good idea to gather and analyze information about your ...
Email & Text Marketing
4 Ways Email Can Drive Other Marketing Channels

July 20, 2016 • Carolyn Nye

For ecommerce merchants, email has been a cost-effective marketing vehicle for years. Merchants typically consider email as a standalone marketing tool. But email can improve other marketing channels, as well. In ...
Marketing & Advertising
14 Image Tools for Instagram

July 19, 2016 • Sig Ueland

For merchants, Instagram can be a good platform to captivate followers by using compelling product photos and inspirational images. Here is a list of tools to create and edit exceptional images ...
Local Business
Using Pokémon Go to Entice Shoppers to Local Businesses

July 19, 2016 • Bill Hartzer

On July 6 and 7, 2016, Niantic and Nintendo began rolling out a new augmented reality app called Pokémon Go. Within a few days it was a hit. Kids and ...
Business
Understanding the New E.U. Privacy Shield, for Ecommerce

July 18, 2016 • John Di Giacomo

In “Electronically-signed Contracts Enforceable?,” I addressed the implementation of new e-signature requirements in Europe. Those requirements are part of wide-ranging changes in E.U. law. The newest, and perhaps most important,