January 3, 2011 • Armando Roggio

Managing an online retail business, even a very small one, can be more labor intensive than some might imagine. Even in the smallest of sole proprietorships, there is accounting to be done; state sales tax to be collected, reported, and paid; vendor price lists to keep track of; a webs...

December 31, 2010 • Kate Monteith

Practical eCommerce asks industry insiders each month to share a great, innovative idea that could help an ecommerce company. Here’s what ten of them had to say for the January ...

December 30, 2010 • PEC Staff

As 2010 draws to a close, we've compiled a list of the 25 most popular Practical eCommerce articles for the year, based on the number of page views. Social media was predominantly on the minds of our readers in 2010, with articles about Facebook taking the top three spots. Other subje...

December 30, 2010 • Scott Smigler

With a new year come new opportunities. It is also a good time to start looking forward to making 2011 more profitable. Here are ten steps to take for the new year to accelerate your pay-per-click advertising efforts. 10. Create After-Holiday Sales As we move into the new year, there...

December 29, 2010 • PEC Staff

Ecommerce business owners depend on Google’s vast array of tools and services to keep their businesses running smoothly. But, the service that made Google famous – the search engine – can be underutilized by ecommerce merchants and their customers. Need an area or zip code for shipping? Find it on Google. Need to track shipments? Track it on Google.

December 29, 2010 • Paul Chaney

Two social commerce topics that created the biggest stir this year were location-based social networks like Foursquare and Facebook Places, and group coupon deals championed by sites like Groupon and Living Social. Groupon became the year's leading social commerce newsmaker when it repo...

December 28, 2010 • PEC Staff

December 28, 2010 • Armando Roggio

Microsoft announced a major vulnerability in all versions of the popular Internet Explorer (IE) web browsers that makes it possible for malicious websites to hijack a visitor's computer. Microsoft said that it did not believe that any serious criminals were either using or previously w...

December 27, 2010 • PEC Staff

Obtaining a loan from a bank to launch that dream ecommerce business can be difficult. But, fortunately there are new funding sources sprouting up that target this niche. “Financing for ...

December 27, 2010 • Armando Roggio

Successful online retailers are often customer-focused service companies rather than just purveyors of products. Put another way, many successful retailers are successful not just because of the products they offer or the effectiveness of their marketing, but rather because they do a g...

December 24, 2010 • PEC Staff

Merchants have almost 600 online shopping carts to choose from, including hosted carts, licensed carts and open-sourced carts. Each week in “Cart Talk” we interview a merchant that uses a ...

December 23, 2010 • PEC Staff

In Reading List, we ask ecommerce professionals to share some of their favorite books and blogs and tell us why they read them. For this installment, we spoke to ...

December 23, 2010 • Jeff Jacobson, Jd, Llm

It’s the end of 2010 and the status of sales tax on the Internet remains somewhat the same since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1992. States continue to push to try to gain access to growing sales transactions that occur on the Internet, and large ecommerce retailers continue to push ...

December 22, 2010 • PEC Staff

“Ask an Expert” is an occasional feature where we ask ecommerce experts questions from online merchants. For this installment, we address a question about email distribution providers that allow purchased ...

December 21, 2010 • Paul Chaney

One of the most-loved songs associated with the yuletide season is "The Twelve Days of Christmas." In an effort to pay homage to the song and the season, here are 12 ways to market your ecommerce business using Facebook, during Christmastime or at anytime. 1. Create a Facebook Page C...

December 21, 2010 • Armando Roggio

Google has released a new updated version of its popular Chrome web browser that supports the WebGL extension to HTML5, making it possible to render 3D graphics in a web browser without the use of a plug-in. Google's inclusion of WebGL in Chrome helps the browser catch up to Firefox an...

December 20, 2010 • Christian Arno

Domain names have become big business in the world of ecommerce. Logo.com recently sold (according to TechCrunch) for $500,000 to a company called – you guessed it – Logo.com. The ...

December 20, 2010 • Armando Roggio

The telephone, like it or not, is an integral part of every business — whether you're speaking with suppliers about shipments, having a teleconference with your web developer, or following up on a customer service question. I am not a big fan of telephones — except for the mobile ones ...

December 17, 2010 • Pamela Hazelton

For years, gift certificates have been a difficult sell for the majority of small online stores. Despite consumer-advocacy laws that now require retailers to impose no fees and that limit expirations on gift certificates and gift cards, consumers are often reminded (especially during th...

December 17, 2010 • PEC Staff

With close to 600 ecommerce shopping carts on the market, merchants have a lot to choose from. Each week in “Cart Talk,” we interview a merchant that uses a particular cart — including hosted carts, licensed carts and open-sourced carts — to get frank, real-world feedback on its use: wh...

December 16, 2010 • Armando Roggio

In the past year, mobile commerce has doubled in volume and by 2015 consumers could be spending nearly $24 billion per year from Internet-enabled mobile devices in the U.S. alone. The mobile commerce market must be taken seriously, explained TRUSTe's director of mobile products Janet J...

December 16, 2010 • PEC Staff

There are many widely used web browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera. And there are dozens of mobile browsers available, with more in development as each new ...

December 15, 2010 • 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. In this installment, we ...

December 15, 2010 • PEC Staff

"Lessons Learned" is a series where we ask ecommerce business owners to share their experiences and advice. For this installment, we interviewed Lee Wright, president of Ma Mi Skin Care, an Orlando, Fla.-based online store that sells all-natural skin care products. Ma Mi Skin Care launc...

December 14, 2010 • PEC Staff

Obtaining loans to grow ecommerce businesses can be difficult. But, fortunately there are financing sources sprouting up that target this niche. “Financing for Ecommerce” is our occasional series on identifying ...

December 14, 2010 • Armando Roggio

Microsoft announced that its forthcoming Internet Explorer (IE) 9 web browser will include an opt-in anti-tracking feature that will block third-party content, and even prevent programs like Google Analytics from working. This is on the heels of a U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rep...

December 13, 2010 • Paul Chaney

The best things in life are free. Or so The Beatles sang, in Money. Here is a list of ten free Facebook apps that I recommend for ecommerce businesses. I've divided them into four categories: Landing Page Creation, Email Marketing, Facebook Shopping Carts, and Other. Landing Page Crea...

December 13, 2010 • Armando Roggio

Online merchants should never forget that their core business is selling products. But it can be an effective marketing tactic to offer other services to potential customers. Examples of offering more than just products abound. They include things like the how-to articles, blogs, enter...

December 10, 2010 • PEC Staff

"Ask an Expert" is an occasional feature where we ask ecommerce experts questions from online merchants. For this installment, we address a question about registering websites with search engines. It comes from Lee Wright, president of Ma Mi Skin Care, a retailer of skin care products f...

December 10, 2010 • PEC Staff

Merchants have almost 600 online shopping carts to choose from, including hosted carts, licensed carts and open-sourced carts. Each week in “Cart Talk” we will be interviewing a merchant that ...