Page 207 – Practical Ecommerce

Category

Platforms & Apps
9 Online Tools to Plan Your Physical Event

September 28, 2011 • Sig Ueland

I recently compiled a list — "16 Live Meeting and Webinar Platforms" — of webinar platforms to reach a broad online audience. But if you’re holding a physical event, such as a conference, you can still find planning resources you need online. Here is a list of sites to help you plan...
Customer Retention
5 Tips for Better Landing Pages

September 28, 2011 • Armando Roggio

Landing pages are important online marketing tools and keys to conversion. So almost anything that a marketer can do to improve a landing page's performance will also improve the bottom line. A landing page may be defined as a page on your website where visitors are sent to prompt a co...
Conversion
Solving the Free Shipping Dilemma

September 27, 2011 • Gagan Mehra

For many merchants, free shipping is an effective online promotion. During the last holiday season, large retailers like Walmart, Target and J.C. Penney offered free shipping for all items. Nordstrom also recently changed its policy to offer free shipping for all purchases. All of this ...
Social Media
Facebook Platform Changes, Part 1: Profiles

September 26, 2011 • Paul Chaney

At f8 2011, Facebook's annual conference held last week for developers and entrepreneurs, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a series of changes to the social network's platform. Most of the changes affect personal profiles, but some have to do with how Fan pages work. I will o...
Analytics & Data > Merchant Voice
10 Web Analytics Solutions for Ecommerce Merchants

September 26, 2011 • Armando Roggio

Web analytics tools seek to monitor and report on the interaction between Internet users and specific websites or marketing initiatives for the purpose of improving those interactions. This definition is a ...
Finance
Ecommerce IPOs for 2011: 3 Down, More to Follow?

September 23, 2011 • Sig Ueland

Groupon's initial public stock offering, which had been pushed back, is now back on. But for how long? With the ongoing market volatility, several prominent Internet companies are reconsidering their IPO plans. Here is a roundup of the ecommerce-related IPO market for 2011, including a...
Design & Development
App List: Amine Khechfe of DYMO Endicia

September 23, 2011 • David Maier

“App List” is a new feature where we ask ecommerce professionals to list the apps they have installed on their phone, and tell us why they use them. For this ...
Finance
Consumers Use Tablets for Shopping; 70 Million Units in 2011

September 22, 2011 • Marcia Kaplan

When Apple introduced the iPad in April 2010, people ridiculed the name. Nobody is mocking it anymore. While other companies, including Microsoft, tinkered with tablets earlier, none of them made much of an impression on consumers. With its sleek design backed by Apple's marketing magic...
Business
ChannelAdvisor CEO Discusses Shop.org

September 21, 2011 • PEC Staff

Shop.org is a leading trade association for ecommerce merchants. It's the online division of National Retail Federation, which represents 3.6 million retail businesses worldwide. To discuss Shop.org and its role in helping online retailers, we spoke with Scot Wingo. He's the CEO of Chan...
Business > Merchant Voice
The Death of Free Shipping

September 21, 2011 • Jamie Salvatori

My highschool economics teacher preached, “There Ain’t No Such Thing as a Free Lunch”. This holds true for shipping costs. In fact, the costs of shipping are rising faster than inflation. I see our shipping rates rising much faster than increases in the cost of our products. So, if you...
Customer Retention
Understanding Basic A/B Testing

September 21, 2011 • Armando Roggio

A/B testing is a method for measuring the relative effectiveness of certain page content or marketing promotions. When properly applied, A/B testing may help marketers significantly improve conversion rates and establish a culture of improvement. In 2009, blogger Dustin Curtis conducte...
Typography & Fonts
Typography 101: The Basics

September 20, 2011 • Drew Coffin

Text is the primary method of Internet communication, making web typography important for merchants to understand. This article will cover some of the basics of typography and provide some things to consider while working with text. I’m going to assume that readers are familiar enough...
Product Pages
Best Policy for Inventory Stock Status? Be Transparent

September 20, 2011 • Pamela Hazelton

Most customers can deal with miniscule shipping mistakes. The majority are forgiving when damaged shipments are quickly addressed or replaced, and most will even return shop if their issues are fixed expeditiously. But what if the order is never fulfilled due to lack of inventory? Las...
Social Media
5 New Facebook Shopping Carts

September 19, 2011 • Paul Chaney

It has been more than a year since I wrote about Facebook shopping carts. That article was titled “Six Facebook Applications to Sell Your Products.” In this article, I’ll review five ...
Conversion
4 Lessons From the Google Ebookstore

September 19, 2011 • Armando Roggio

Google's electronic bookstore took months to plan and is considered by some to be a viable competitor to respected brands like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The crisp clean site has at least four valuable lessons to share with seasoned ecommerce professionals and new entrepreneurs alik...
Finance
Amazon Prime: 5 Million Members, 20 Percent Growth

September 16, 2011 • Marcia Kaplan

For $79 a year, Amazon customers who join the Prime membership program get unlimited free two-day shipping on eligible items with no minimum order size. For $3.99 an item, a ...
Content Marketing
15 ‘Light-Blogging’ Sites

September 16, 2011 • Sig Ueland

More people are light blogging. According to Quantcast, in the last year Tumblr tripled its visits per month to over 300 million, 8.5 times more page views per month than full-blogging counterpart Wordpress.com. Here is a list of light-blogging platforms. There are micro-blogging platf...
Schools & Resources
Reading List: Konstantin Molchanov of CS-Cart

September 15, 2011 • PEC Staff

In “Reading List,” we ask ecommerce professionals to name some of their favorite recent books and blogs and tell us why they read them. For this installment, we corresponded with Konstantin Molchanov, promotion speci...
Marketing & Advertising
Nearly 1-in-3 Adults Use Location-Based Services

September 15, 2011 • Armando Roggio

According to a report released last week, 28 percent of American adults use some form of location-based service, either on a mobile device or via a social network. The report from ...
Email & Text Marketing
Email Case Study: Travelzoo’s Value and Simplicity

September 14, 2011 • Carolyn Nye

Email campaigns can be extraordinarily complex. There are dozens of elements within any campaign that may affect overall results. These elements include subject lines, creative text, calls to action, product offers, timing, frequency, and audience considerations. Email marketers try to ...
Platforms & Apps
11 Online Meeting Planners

September 14, 2011 • Sig Ueland

Online scheduling sites offer a simple way to schedule your next meeting. Pick your range of dates on the app's calendar, then notify the other meeting attendees so they can pick the dates that work for them. View the responses, and you’re done. No more wasting time searching for a time...
Business
Site Search Complements Navigation, Says SLI-Systems CEO

September 13, 2011 • PEC Staff

By almost any measure, high-level site search increases sales. The need for sophisticated site search is becoming increasingly important for ecommerce merchants, who serve an increasingly sophisticated consumer base. To discuss trends in site search and new developments in that industr...
Payments
Credit Card Salespeople Don’t Understand Ecommerce Merchants

September 13, 2011 • Phil Hinke

This article is my latest installment on deceptive credit card practices that harm ecommerce merchants. I have worked in the credit card processing industry since 1994 and every year I get more disgusted with the tactics used on merchants. I now own a consulting firm that advises merc...
Marketing & Advertising
7 Keys to Managing Online Communities

September 12, 2011 • Paul Chaney

In last week’s article, "3 Inexpensive Tools to Build Your Own Social Network," I reviewed three platforms to build niche online communities. However, making a community a vital part of your marketing efforts takes more effort than selecting the platform. It needs active management. Thi...
Business
Style Guides for the Digital World

September 12, 2011 • Armando Roggio

Written communications are a vital part of ecommerce marketing. How a business presents itself in words may affect how that business is perceived. With this in mind, it is a ...
Design & Development
Ask an Expert: ‘Is An SSL Certificate Necessary If I Use a Hosted Payment Solution?’

September 8, 2011 • PEC Staff

Is an SSL certificate necessary if a use a hosted payment solution? When customers purchase a gift basket from my site, they are routed to PayPal’s site to collect the payment information. I don’t see that information, including the customer’s name. Do I need an SSL certificate?
Finance
How to Read a Financial Statement

September 8, 2011 • Marcia Kaplan

Having a good accountant is important to the success of every small business. But do you really understand all the terms in the documents your accountant prepares? Relying too heavily ...
Conversion
9 Pointers for Selling Common Products

September 7, 2011 • Michael Stearns

Five or ten years ago you might have been one of the only kids on the ecommerce block selling automotive tools, pool supplies, specialty fabrics, or a myriad of other niche products. But competition has increased and the "big-box" retailers continue to extend their online reach. How ca...
Business
Ecommerce’s Debt to Steve Jobs; 10 Innovations

September 7, 2011 • Sig Ueland

Ecommerce owes Steve Jobs. Aside from launching the first popular personal computer, the Apple co-founder brought about many of the devices and marketplaces that make-up today's online commerce. Here is a list of innovations by Steve Jobs that have affected the ecommerce industry. The...
Social Media
3 Inexpensive Tools to Build Your Own Social Network

September 6, 2011 • Paul Chaney

When we think of social networks, large communities like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn typically come to mind. There is, however, another type of social network that often goes overlooked: niche communities. Ecommerce merchants should consider creating their own niche online communit...