Page 144 – Practical Ecommerce

Category

Marketing & Advertising
13 Mobile Ad Networks, to Reach Potential Buyers

July 5, 2015 • Sig Ueland

Mobile advertising networks help brands reach consumers. If you’re trying to engage and monetize customers on mobile, you may need a mobile ad network. Here is a list of mobile ad ...
Social Media
Facebook Advertising: A Case Study

July 3, 2015 • Rodney Hess

Facebook advertising is nearly essential to the success of any small business's social media marketing efforts. This case study, from a long-standing client, helps prove the point.
Amazon & Marketplaces
6 Things to Love About eBay Product Pages

July 3, 2015 • Armando Roggio

Founded in 1995, eBay is one of the original ecommerce pioneers. So it would stand to reason that as eBay has gone from startup to earning more than $17.9 billion ...
Platforms & Apps
14 Niche Market Business Software Platforms and Apps

July 2, 2015 • Kathleen Fealy

This article presents 14 software platforms and apps that help niche market businesses improve their marketing, heighten customer experience, and manage assets more efficiently. They focus on the following industries: hotel, medical, real estate, financial services, photography, publishing, human resources, HVAC, and contracting.
Social Media
8 Content Formats to Jazz-up Social Media Posts

July 1, 2015 • Samantha Collier

It can be easy to fall back on tried and trusted formats when developing content for social media channels. Sometimes there isn’t time to think more widely about the types ...
Inventory
SKU Management Ensures Inventory Profits

July 1, 2015 • Michael Manzione

SKU management is the process of analyzing the cost of carrying each inventory item to ensure it is meeting the financial objectives of the business. If your business is virtual and ...
Social Media
Social Media: What, When, and Where to Post

July 1, 2015 • Kristine Wirth

As a small business owner, I know how difficult it is to plan exactly where and when to post my social media content. Not only do I want people to see my posts, but also share, like, and comment on them — and click on the links contained in them. Without interaction, social media marketing will do me — or anyone else — little good.
Business
How to Serve Empowered Ecommerce Shoppers

June 30, 2015 • Armando Roggio

Online retailers are doing business in the era of empowered shoppers. This competitive environment pits massive omnichannel retail enterprises against even the smallest of family-run, garage-based sellers. Shopping has fundamentally changed ...
Google Ads
3 Strategies for PPC Ad Copy, for Ecommerce

June 29, 2015 • Robert Brady

There are many moving parts in pay-per-click advertising — from keyword selection to bid management to ongoing optimization. But ad copy is where you make that invaluable first impression on ...
Fraud Prevention
18 Online Security Resources for Small Businesses

June 29, 2015 • Sig Ueland

Recently, cybersecurity company FireEye announced a partnership with Visa to develop products and services for merchants, as well as card issuers, to detect and respond to attacks. The announcement underscores ...
Analytics & Data
Google Analytics: 7 Important Audience Metrics to Track

June 26, 2015 • Sharon Mostyn

The Audience section of the Google Analytics dashboard contains metrics that can help you track website traffic, see the number of pages viewed, and estimate audience interest in your content.
Content Marketing
5 Content Marketing Ideas for July 2015

June 26, 2015 • Armando Roggio

Patriotism, projects, smooches, and even summertime activities can drive your company’s contact marketing campaigns this July, boosting site traffic and, ultimately, sales. When businesses create, publish, and distribute content with the ...
Influencers & Affiliates
Affiliate Marketing: How to Set a Commission Structure

June 24, 2015 • Carolyn Kmet

The more complex a commission structure is, the less likely an affiliate is going to prioritize your products. For example, say that you pay different commission rates for different product ...
Marketing & Advertising
4 Ways to Grow Ecommerce Traffic in 2015

June 24, 2015 • Armando Roggio

Unique site visits — the number of individuals that frequent a website — are a proxy of sorts for an online business’s new customer acquisition. If month-to-month a site has more unique visitors, it stands to reason
Social Media
9 Essential Tools for Instagram Marketing

June 23, 2015 • Rodney Hess

Instagram has quickly become one of the best social media marketing platforms for small businesses, to increase awareness and build engagement. A recent Forrester study found that brands on Instagram see an average engagement rate of 4.21 percent.
Amazon & Marketplaces
5 Tradeoffs for Selling on Amazon

June 23, 2015 • James Thomson

For six years I worked for Amazon, most recently as head of Amazon Services, that part of Amazon that recruits 100,000 new sellers to the Amazon marketplace each year. During my tenure, feedback ...
Social Media
7 Home Service Marketplaces to List Your Business

June 22, 2015 • Paul Chaney

Consumers can now purchase services from local vendors on-demand and pay for them online, via home service marketplaces. Amazon recently entered this space with its “Home Services” store, but many comparable sites exist that cater to the service sector in one form or another.
Business
APIs Bring Ecommerce to Any Page, Service

June 22, 2015 • Armando Roggio

Application programming interfaces (APIs) from payment processors and service providers make it possible, if not easy, to bring ecommerce to essentially any page or any service. Often the first thing that ...
Customer Service
Customer Reviews Can Sell Your Products

June 21, 2015 • Pamela Hazelton

There is a benefit to shopping on Amazon: customer reviews. They play a big role in helping consumers choose products. They also help Amazon with closing sales. That’s why Amazon ...
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 ...
Business
Balancing ecommerce profits with a nonprofit mission

June 18, 2015 • Kenny Kane

In “Using ecommerce to support cancer survivors,” my last post, I discussed how Stupid Cancer launched an online store, and ultimately, a lifestyle brand. Since its inception in 2012, the ...
Email & Text Marketing
4 Summertime Email-marketing Tactics, to Spur Sales

June 18, 2015 • Carolyn Nye

For many ecommerce businesses, summer can be a challenging time for sales. Consumers are preoccupied with vacation plans and traveling, which can decrease online purchasing. In this post, I’ll explore four ...
Conversion
7 Ways to Improve Ecommerce Site Navigation

June 17, 2015 • Armando Roggio

Ecommerce site navigation should help shoppers find products quickly and easily. Good navigation improves the online shopping experience and helps merchants increase sales and profits. Website design includes a combination of user experience ...
Social Media
Using Short Links to Verify Clicks in Marketing Campaigns

June 17, 2015 • Michael Stancil

Short links are popular. You’ve likely seen them, such as in the form of a bit.ly, though there are plenty of other services. The benefits to using short links are ...
Business > Merchant Voice
9 tips for working with suppliers

June 16, 2015 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

I launched my third ecommerce venture, My Wedding Decor, in April. Since then, I have been working with over 40 wedding-product suppliers. Here’s what I’ve learned so far. 1. Maintain your ...
Business
Language Translation Tools for Ecommerce Sites

June 16, 2015 • Gagan Mehra

The Internet has made it easier to sell products and services worldwide. But easy access without an engaging customer experience cannot guarantee sales. Presenting site content in a local language ...
Business > Merchant Voice
Fast Internet connection creates internal network glitches

June 15, 2015 • Richard Stubbings

Many articles about ecommerce address customer-facing issues, such as website design, search engine optimization, content, marketing, and order fulfillment. One often-ignored topic is the basic hardware required —the internal network ...
On-page SEO
SEO: For Conversions, Every Page Is a Landing Page

June 15, 2015 • Jill Kocher Brown

Every page on your site is a landing page for organic search. Whether searchers convert — or even make the next click deeper into your site — depends on myriad ...
Business
How to Buy a Small Ecommerce Business on Flippa

June 15, 2015 • Armando Roggio

Flippa is a leading marketplace for buying and selling websites, including active online stores, those with established site traffic, revenue, and profit. One of the sites available at auction on Flippa at the ...
Design & Dev Tools
14 Color Tools to Grow Your Business

June 14, 2015 • Sig Ueland

Color has a powerful affect on consumers. According to KISSmetrics, up to 90 percent of a person’s initial assessment of a product is based solely on color. Bring dynamic color ...