Page 193 – Practical Ecommerce

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Schools & Resources
16 New QR Code Campaigns in 2012

July 24, 2012 • Sig Ueland

Quick Response (QR) codes continue to appear in creative and inspired marketing promotions. Companies are finding new uses for the codes, as well as new ways to display them. Here is a list of new QR code campaigns in 2012. Some of the QR examples are remarkably inventive, such as Ema...
Design & Development
18 Websites Featuring Beautiful Illustrations

July 24, 2012 • Drew Coffin

In "10 Web Design Trends for 2012," I listed large illustrations as a growing trend in web design. Website illustrations can add personality to even the smallest sites and invite visitors to stay awhile and explore. Here are 18 websites with compelling illustrations.
Social Media
10 Strategies for Effective Facebook Posts

July 23, 2012 • Paul Chaney

There are 901 million Facebook users, and the average user creates 90 pieces of content each month, according to the company. Filtering through this mountain of content to get your message seen by Fans and their friends can be difficult. Here are 10 Facebook posting strategies that ca...
Shipping & Fulfillment
How to Reduce Picking and Packing Errors

July 23, 2012 • James Hyde

The picking and packing of ecommerce orders can be repetitive, mistake-prone work. But a well-designed workflow, using complementary software, can help reduce mistakes, provided that it supports the employees doing the work — not frustrate or hinder them. This article will explain how...
Conversion
Launching a New Ecommerce Business

July 20, 2012 • Dale Traxler

I am helping a friend who is considering setting up a new ecommerce business. Even though she has done it before, we are both reminded of all that is involved. My ...
Design & Development
Getting Started with Responsive Web Design

July 19, 2012 • Gagan Mehra

Responsive design was conceived a couple of years ago to allow users to view websites across all devices — computers, tablets and smartphones. Since then, large sites like Starbucks and Boston Globe have adopted responsive design. But adoption by the small business community has been lo...
Payments
Visa, MasterCard Settlement Not an Automatic Win for Merchants

July 19, 2012 • Phil Hinke

Visa, MasterCard and 13 of the country's biggest banks have agreed to pay $7.25 billion to retailers in a settlement from a lawsuit over price-fixing on credit card transaction fees. The settlement, on behalf of about 7 million retailers, could be the largest antitrust class-action set...
Business
3 Ideas to Reduce Shipping Costs

July 18, 2012 • PEC Staff

Shipping policies can help make an Internet merchant successful. But shipping also is one of the largest cost centers. Amazon, Zappos, Overstock and Buy.com have stacked the cards in their favor by offering either free shipping or very aggressive shipping programs and policies. Conseque...
Email & Text Marketing
4 Ways to Improve Email Deliverability

July 18, 2012 • Carolyn Nye

For an email-marketing program to be successful, the message must be delivered. In this article, I'll explain email deliverability basics, and offer four tips to make sure your emails hit the inbox of your recipients. 1. Know Your IP Address An IP address is a numerical number for th...
Business
Dr. Ralph Wilson on the Founding of Web Marketing Today

July 18, 2012 • Kerry Murdock

Before Google, Netscape, and Internet Explorer, there was Web Marketing Today. Dr. Ralph F. Wilson founded it back in 1995 as a vehicle to supplement his then-fledgling web development practice.
Conversion
7 Strategies to Grow Ecommerce Revenue

July 17, 2012 • Dale Traxler

As an ecommerce business owner, I focused on growing revenue. With increasing competition in most markets, ecommerce merchants need to continually grow revenue to add stability to their businesses and to cover rising operating costs. Recall from my previous articles — such as "Who Nee...
Social Media
9 Ways to Increase Twitter Engagement

July 17, 2012 • Paul Chaney

A new report from social commerce company Buddy Media offers insights on how businesses can use Twitter to heighten engagement and produce favorable results. It states that to more effectively leverage Twitter as a marketing channel, businesses need to know "when to Tweet, what to Tweet...
Customer Service
Be a Customer Service Superhero, Like Ron Burley

July 16, 2012 • Armando Roggio

Customer concerns, complaints, and problems give online merchants an opportunity to build lasting customer relationships and boost word-of-mouth marketing. Providing super customer service can make your business a hero to your customers. The classic “Adventures of Superman” television ...
Schools & Resources
16 New Ecommerce Books for Summer 2012

July 16, 2012 • Sig Ueland

Working on your summer reading list? Here is a list of new ecommerce and Internet-marketing books for summer 2012. There are new titles on social media, handcrafted Pinterest businesses, search engine optimization, and even a title on creating short product videos. This list was compil...
Analytics & Data
Google Analytics: 3 Tests to Ensure Your Checkout Process Is Working

July 13, 2012 • Tim Wilson

There’s a reason that an ecommerce site’s checkout process is one of the most popular analytics topics. Once a person initiates a checkout, she has self-identified herself as a visitor with a high intent to purchase. Chances are, you’ve already spent money acquiring that potential custo...
Amazon & Marketplaces
ShopRunner May Help Merchants Compete with Amazon Prime

July 13, 2012 • Marcia Kaplan

For consumers, the cost of shipping has been one of the major drawbacks of ecommerce. During the last holiday season, free shipping made a comeback as merchants tried to ensure that consumers would buy online. So popular was the promotion many merchants continue to offer it. Now, with t...
Technical SEO
5 SEO Shortcuts to Avoid

July 12, 2012 • Jill Kocher Brown

Search engines are programmed to reward relevance and popularity, and are striving to algorithmically determine quality as well. Ecommerce sites are programmed to sell product to customers as efficiently as possible while offering a positive brand experience. Ecommerce sites often striv...
Business
How to Change Your Online Reputation

July 11, 2012 • PEC Staff

Say you are an ecommerce merchant with an angry customer. The customer is so angry, he posts bad, negative reviews on the Internet about your company that are not true. What can you do? How can you combat it? We recently spoke with Cliff Stein about the business of managing online reput...
Analytics & Data
Google Analytics Jumps into Mobile Metrics

July 11, 2012 • Jaime Brugueras

Google Analytics is finally jumping into mobile data metrics. Google recently launched "Mobile App Analytics" as a part of its Analytics web app suite. Analytics is already used by almost a fourth of Internet Retailer’s Top 500 online retailers and more than half of its “Second 500.” Wi...
Social Media
14 Pinterest-Like Sites for Product Promotion

July 9, 2012 • Armando Roggio

Popular photography and video tagging site Pinterest and its many clones have sparked a product-photo sharing frenzy that may present a good marketing opportunity for retailers. Pinterest and similar sites allow users to “pin,” “fancy,” “tag,” and “tap” images and videos in a manner ve...
Social Media
20 Top Brands on Socialcam

July 9, 2012 • Sig Ueland

Socialcam is a free video-sharing platform for iOS and Android. Socialcam creates fast and easy clip sharing in the same way that Instagram makes mobile photos instantly sharable. Brands are using the platform to share their stories, as well as deliver engaging entertainment. Here are ...
Business > Merchant Voice
The Free Traffic Myth

July 6, 2012 • Jamie Salvatori

The obsession over search engine result page (SERP) placement stems from the erroneous thought that traffic gained via this source is free. It isn’t. The cost associated with ranking well for competitive terms is outrageous. Not only will you spend countless hours researching keywords,...
Google Ads
Google Shopping’s Impact on SEO

July 6, 2012 • Jill Kocher Brown

Over the next several months, Google’s free Product Search feature will start costing ecommerce sites a lot more. Since the launch of Google’s Froogle in 2002, Google has provided a free product search service. The newly launched Google Shopping marks the first time that the company has...
Social Media
‘Promoted Stories’ Enables Wide Content Syndication

July 5, 2012 • Paul Chaney

Syndicating blog posts, press releases or new product announcements can be time consuming, especially when you consider the number and types of channels available. Further, many small ecommerce merchants do not have the internal resources to effectively promote such content. They may po...
Amazon & Marketplaces
Setting Up an Amazon Webstore

July 5, 2012 • Armando Roggio

Amazon offers a software as a service ecommerce platform with solutions ranging from a quick shopping cart for individual sellers and small businesses to enterprise level services. What's more, Amazon promises that its Webstore solution is both good quality and easy to use. Is that re...
Business
Pawn Shops Move to the Internet; CEO Explains

July 4, 2012 • PEC Staff

Most sectors of the retail economy do business on the Internet. That now includes pawn shops. We recently spoke with Don Battis, CEO and founder of Pawntique.com, a web-only pawn shop that serves all of the U.S. from its base in New Hampshire. Practical eCommerce: What is Pawntique? ...
Business > Merchant Voice
You’ve got a search box, right?

July 4, 2012 • Jamie Salvatori

Users who use search on your website convert at a much higher rate than those who don’t. On my website, the difference is striking. Visits with search convert about 500% higher than those without search. Please remember, though, that correlation does not imply causation. The simple ac...
Conversion
Google Shopping: Preparing for Paid Listings

July 3, 2012 • Jody Isaksson Hartwig

It’s been a month of heated debate and speculation since Google announced its intention to phase out free listings on its comparison shopping engine, Google Product Search, and transition to paid listings built on Product Listing Ads for its new initiative, Google Shopping. Google expla...
Social Media
12 Resources for Custom Facebook Pages

July 3, 2012 • Sig Ueland

Facebook has a whole lot of people to introduce your brand to. It also has a variety of third-party resources to create custom tabs and pages to present your brand. Here is a list of resources to create custom tabs and pages for your brand. Many of these resources offer social apps to...
Design & Dev Tools
Qwiki’s New Video Creator May Have Ecommerce Applications

July 2, 2012 • Armando Roggio

A New York-based rich-media technology firm has released a new platform that may make it easier for online retailers to produce product-detail videos with little more than product images and a microphone. Qwiki first announced its Creator platform in May 2012 and set up a private beta ...