Page 185 – Practical Ecommerce

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Technical SEO
SEO: Optimal Ecommerce URLs

February 1, 2013 • Jill Kocher Brown

The ecommerce platform that hosts a site determines the URL structure, which in turn can have an impact on the site’s search engine optimization. Each platform creates URLs according to its own rules, but nearly all can be modified for greater SEO and brand recognition. In years past, ...
Payments
U.S. Merchants Can Now Charge for Credit Card Transactions

January 31, 2013 • Phil Hinke

In November 2012, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York preliminarily approved a proposed settlement agreement with Visa and MasterCard. As part of the settlement, Visa and MasterCard were required to allow merchants to charge for certain credit card transactions ...
Schools & Resources
Reading List: Postcode Anywhere’s Guy Mucklow

January 31, 2013 • 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 Guy ...
Social Media
10 Ways Merchants Can Use Google+

January 30, 2013 • Paul Chaney

The continued growth of Google+, along with an increased understanding of the nature of the platform, has caused many companies to establish a presence there. Google has also positioned Google+ as a channel businesses can use. With that in mind, here are 10 ways you can take advantage...
Influencers & Affiliates
Affiliate Marketing: Beyond Banner Ads to Drive Traffic

January 29, 2013 • Carolyn Kmet

Affiliate marketing extends beyond a standard banner ad. While you should offer your affiliates a solid creative inventory — featuring a wide variety of campaigns and sizes — you should also ensure that you are providing tools for affiliates who use other forms of advertising to drive ...
Design & Development
Using Creative QR Codes

January 29, 2013 • Drew Coffin

QR codes can be used to display text, store product information, or direct users to websites. Most smartphones can scan QR codes with a built-in camera and a barcode scanner app. This makes QR codes an effective way to connect with customers. The problem with QR codes is they are often bulky and unattractive.
Photography & Video
How to Take Gorgeous Product Photos

January 28, 2013 • Jason Lawrence

Editor's Note: We welcome Jason Lawrence as our newest contributor. He is a computer scientist, researcher, educator, and entrepreneur, having co-founded Arqspin, a mobile phone-based platform for creating 360 spins. He is also an associate professor in the Computer Science Department a...
Google Ads
6 Rules for Pay-per-click Ad Profits

January 28, 2013 • Scott Smigler

I often hear from merchants that have tried pay-per-click advertising, but it wasn’t profitable for them. So they abandoned it. In my experience, however, many merchants could turn unprofitable campaigns into profitable ones by adopting the six rules that follow. Rule 1: Commit to PPC...
Business
Secrets of getting top valuation for your eCommerce Business

January 27, 2013 • Manish Shah

Ecommerce businesses that sell at the top valuation in marketplace are not the ones where owner invested the last year or two of their time preparing the business and it’s systems for sale. In reality, they are the businesses where the owner has planned, created and perfected the auto-p...
Finance
Equity Crowdfunding Stalls

January 25, 2013 • Marcia Kaplan

When President Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act in April 2012, the clock started ticking on a 270-day period for the Securities and Exchange Commission to write the regulations that would govern crowdfunding. That 270 period is over and no regulations exist. SEC Chai...
Conversion
Personalizing the Customer Experience

January 24, 2013 • Dale Traxler

I recently shopped for a new wallet in several online stores. Later that day, I saw ads for one of the same wallets on The New York Times' website and Facebook from eBags.com. Since I had shopped at eBags.com, I knew that it was not a coincidence. It was a remarketing ad. In this case, ...
Conversion
10 TED Talks to Re-think Your Marketing

January 24, 2013 • Kevin Webster

TED started as a conference to bring together people from the Technology, Entertainment, and Design worlds. TED.com posts speeches from experts, which TED describes as "riveting talks by remarkable people." These are known as TED Talks.
Business > Merchant Voice
How 100 retailers responded to a mystery shopper’s Contact Us query

January 23, 2013 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

How do you respond to the customer enquiries through your Contact Us page? Do you take them seriously? You may be leaving your customer's money and their goodwill on the table. A friend of mine has just launched a baby t-shirt product so out of curiosity and solidarity, we arranged th...
Marketing & Advertising
7 Keys to Ecommerce Blogging Success

January 22, 2013 • Paul Chaney

Business blogs serve many functions. They can inform consumers of news about your company, highlight upcoming events, promote products and services, or demonstrate expertise and thought-leadership. However, a successful blog requires careful planning. These seven keys will help you be...
Design & Dev Tools
19 Tools to Test your Site for Mobile Devices

January 21, 2013 • Sig Ueland

Is your ecommerce site ready for mobile commerce? Preparing your site for mobile customers can be daunting, considering the huge range of mobile devices and browsers. Fortunately, there are some great tools available to make sure your site is mobile compatible. Here is a list of tools ...
Business > Merchant Voice
How to negotiate successfully

January 20, 2013 • Jamie Salvatori

In business, almost everything is negotiable. The key to successful negotiating, however, is figuring out when to spend time and energy negotiating and how to maximize your negotiations. In the business of e-commerce, your biggest expense is typically COGS (cost of goods sold). And as ...
Conversion
13 Tips for Ecommerce Success in 2013

January 18, 2013 • Dale Traxler

Running your ecommerce business can be a grind. You need to replenish products, drive more traffic to your store, create new promotions, respond to customers, develop your employees, and so forth. In "Reviewing Your Ecommerce Business at Year End," my article from last month, I addres...
Social Media
Facebook Takes on Local Search

January 17, 2013 • Jill Kocher Brown

Consumers use the Internet to search for local businesses, events, and topics. Google is a major player in local search, but so is Bing, Yahoo!, Yelp, YellowPages.com, Foursquare, and other sites. Local search now has a new competitor: Facebook Graph Search. Launched this week, Facebo...
Email & Text Marketing
Email Marketing: 4 Tips for Sending to Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo!

January 17, 2013 • Carolyn Nye

An email is effective only if it is successfully delivered to the recipient. Moreover, getting the email to the inbox, versus the spam or junk folder, increases the chances of the message being read. Deliverability is a crucial element in the overall success of an email program. It ca...
Business
Lessons Learned: From Police Officer to Wedding-products Retailer

January 16, 2013 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

If Erica Tevis had passed her firearms test as a rookie New York police officer 12 years ago, it’s highly unlikely the New Jersey girl would have become a wedding products online retailer. Tevis, who has a bachelor’s and master’s in criminal justice from St. John’s University and Iona ...
Social Media
10 Tips for Syndicating Blog Content

January 16, 2013 • Paul Chaney

Blogging is hard work. It takes much time to research a topic, write copy, and find useful images, videos, and infographics. But writing a post is only the first step. For ...
User Experience
Optimizing Ecommerce for Tablets and Smartphones

January 15, 2013 • PEC Staff

If you're thinking users of smartphones and tablets do not represent a material part of your ecommerce audience, consider these data points. 29 percent of all U.S. adults own a tablet or e-reader, up from 2 percent three years ago, according to Pew Research. Sales from tablets and sma...
Analytics & Data
Understanding Big Data For Ecommerce

January 14, 2013 • Marcia Kaplan

The term "Big Data" was the Internet buzzword of 2012. The use of Big Data promises to become more prevalent in 2013, as merchants large and small who use Big Data analytics can gain a significant competitive advantage. What is Big Data? Webopedia defines it as "a massive volume of bo...
Email & Text Marketing
Don’t Forget Email Marketing; 13 Reasons

January 11, 2013 • Dale Traxler

With all the focus on social media, it seems that email marketing is almost an afterthought for many companies. Email may not be trendy, but it’s cheap, easy to measure, and easy to target. It's a good place to do testing, it keeps your brand visible, and at the end of the day it delive...
Analytics & Data
Configuring Google Analytics, Part 2: Advanced Capabilities

January 10, 2013 • Tim Wilson

Editor's note: This is "Part 2" of a 2-part series on how to know if you are fully using Google Analytics for your ecommerce site. The first installment, "Configuring Google Analytics, Part 1: Are You Taking Full Advantage?," we published previously. In "Part 1: Are You Taking Full Adv...
Conversion
Customer Service Key for Ecommerce; 6 Pointers

January 10, 2013 • Shirley Tan

As ecommerce business owners, we tend to think in terms of policies, inventory, and operations. But the most important part of our businesses is customers. A customer-centric organization considers how every decision will impact the customer experience. Here are some ways good custome...
Conversion
Google Analytics: 7 Shortcomings

January 9, 2013 • Jaime Brugueras

Google Analytics is a powerful free tool for understanding your website's traffic and visits. But it does have shortcomings. This article explores seven issues with the current version. There are several other analytics software packages to choose from. Many of these are capable of dea...
Conversion
What Do Shoppers Think of Your Ecommerce Site?

January 9, 2013 • Dale Traxler

In "Reviewing your Ecommerce Business at Year End," I offered a framework to critique your business's performance for 2012. This week's article focuses on how to improve your ecommerce businesses for 2013. To start, look at your business from the perspective of your shoppers. Revie...
Schools & Resources
Reading List: Bridgeline Digital’s Brett Zucker

January 8, 2013 • 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 Brett ...
Social Media
8 Instagram Photo-Sharing Alternatives

January 8, 2013 • Paul Chaney

Photo-sharing site Instagram created a controversy recently when it proposed a change in its terms of service that would have allowed the company to incorporate user generated images in ads without users' permission. The company has since reconsidered its decision. Having written "10 W...