Page 228 – Practical Ecommerce

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Design & Development
Prebuilt Ecommerce Templates Save Money, Says AlgoZone’s CEO

June 17, 2010 • PEC Staff

Ecommerce merchants frequently incur development fees to obtain specific features or appearances for their websites. But there are also prebuilt templates that can do this, at prices much less than custom-built solutions. One maker of these is AlgoZone. It offers hundreds of ready-mad...
Business
Copyright Trolls Threaten Your Ecommerce Business

June 17, 2010 • Jeff Jacobson, Jd, Llm

Your website most likely has pictures on it. It might also have video as part of the design or to help in the sale of products. The use of these items is necessary to show your customers what the product looks like or the product’s functions. However, all too often the source of the p...
SEO
SEO Report Card: United States Golf Association, Photo Store Website

June 16, 2010 • Stephan Spencer

This month in “SEO Report Card,” I’ll be reviewing the photo store for the United States Golf Association Museum website. This was at the request of Robert Sabin, the president ...
Code
What Are AJAX and Dynamic JavaScript?

June 16, 2010 • Joseph C. Dolson

Editor's Note: Ecommerce merchants operate businesses using complex technologies. We launched our "Need to Know" series to help merchants obtain a basic understanding of these technologies, recognizing that most merchants are not web developers or programmers. In this installment, contr...
Checkout Tactics
Usability Report Card: How-To-Plans.com

June 15, 2010 • Pamela Hazelton

I’m always excited to hear business owners wanting a blunt, no-holds-barred analysis. It means they’re serious about being competitive. The team at How-To-Plans asked Practical eCommerce to grade the usability of its website. How-To-Plans sells do-it-yourself plans for all sorts of hom...
Code
HTML5 Video: 12 Frequently Asked Questions

June 14, 2010 • PEC Staff

Editor's Note: Many observers believe the new version of HTML, called HTML5, will change online video because of the <video> tag that the new version contains. But, there are many unresolved details involving HTML5 video, and we asked a video expert about some of these. The exper...
Analytics & Data
The PEC Review: WooRank Website Analysis Tool

June 14, 2010 • Armando Roggio

Search engine optimization (SEO) is changing. As search engines like Google, Bing, and Ask seek to provide better, more relevant, personalized, and, perhaps, even real-time results to search queries, so-called traditional SEO tactics may not work as expected. What's more, since search ...
Social Media
Ecommerce News Around the Web for June 11, 2010

June 11, 2010 • Paul Chaney

"Ecommerce News Around the Web" is our weekly review of articles, blog posts and other news items that could interest ecommerce merchants. Shop.org and NRF Weigh in on Boucher Privacy Bill - Shop.org Online privacy is a hot topic these days, both among consumers and in Washington. Con...
Conversion
Four Ways to Increase Conversion Rates

June 11, 2010 • Armando Roggio

To make more sales, an online retailer can increase traffic, convert site visitors into customers at a higher rate, or, ideally, do both. On Tuesday, Practical Ecommerce hosted a webinar aimed at helping merchants boost conversion rates. The webinar's panelists described four distinct...
Email & Text Marketing
Email Marketing Has Always Been Social

June 10, 2010 • Armando Roggio

Social marketing is one of the most important new trends in online retail promotion. It is effective, builds customer relationships, and offers a better return on investment than some other marketing techniques. But often, online merchants don't realize that they are already engaged in ...
Email & Text Marketing
Six Pointers for Formatting Your Ecommerce Emails

June 10, 2010 • Janine Popick

Ecommerce merchants from all industries are utilizing email as a valuable retail sales channel. However, some merchants may be confused about how to optimize their emails for the dozens of different email programs now available, as well as the plethora of mobile devices that their custo...
Business
Google TV Ads Help Online Gift Merchant

June 9, 2010 • PEC Staff

When it comes to marketing, many merchants think of pay-per-click ads, or search engine optimization or even email newsletters. But one merchant has successfully used television advertising. He is Jamie Salvatori, founder and owner of VAT19.com, a retailer of unusual gift items. He use...
Code
HTML5: The Future of Online Video?

June 9, 2010 • Justin Foster

If you pay attention to online video, chances are you’ve heard of HTML5. It could be the next big technology that will change online video as we know it. Apple’s Steve Jobs famously stated several weeks ago, in his "Thoughts on Flash" letter, that Apple prefers HTML5 video to Adobe’s F...
Social Media
Social Commerce Spotlight: Payvment, a Facebook Storefront Provider

June 8, 2010 • Paul Chaney

Social commerce, the use of social media in the context of ecommerce, is becoming commonplace. Over the next few weeks, Practical Ecommerce will examine ecommerce platforms and applications that allow merchants to take advantage of this new trend. In this installment, we will discuss ...
Design & Development
May Survey Results: Analytics, Gmail Most Popular Google Products

June 8, 2010 • Nic Murdock

A monthly survey conducted by Practical eCommerce polled readers about the importance and trustworthiness of Google products. The May 2010 survey asked four questions about Google products, with a comment section for each response. Readers who completed the survey, and then provided us...
Design & Development
Ten Steps to Migrate Your Site to a New Ecommerce Platform

June 7, 2010 • Michael Stearns

A milestone in the growth of your ecommerce business is when you realize you have outgrown your current web platform and need to upgrade. Maybe you nailed it the first time around and picked a terrific, scalable platform. But oftentimes, first-time site owners opt for the low cost, set-...
Social Media
The PEC Review: Twitalyzer Offers Analytics for your Twitter Accounts

June 7, 2010 • Armando Roggio

As more online retailers invest marketing dollars and time into social marketing, it is becoming increasingly important to measure the return on that investment. As with any concerted marketing effort, social marketing has real costs in terms of hourly labor expenses for time spent twe...
Conversion
The Shopping Experience: OldNavy.com Easy to Use, But Not Perfect

June 4, 2010 • Jeff Muendel

Editor's Note: "The Shopping Experience" is an occasional feature whereby we purchase an actual product from an ecommerce merchant, and then critique the process. For this installment, contributor describes his purchase of a jacket. Summertime requires summer clothing, and I was in ne...
Conversion
Videos Help Consumers, Says Invodo CEO

June 3, 2010 • PEC Staff

Nearly every ecommerce merchant who uses product videos reports that it increases sales. But there are disagreements as to what to include in a product video, how to produce it and where to show it. Invodo is a company that specializes in assisting merchants with product videos, and i...
Shipping & Fulfillment
How To Rate-Shop International Shipping

June 3, 2010 • John Lindberg

U.S. export sales are increasing, which makes international rate shopping more important than ever. For example, here are published rates for a typical 10-pound parcel sent from my fulfillment company located in Traverse City, Mich. to a client’s customer located in London, England. U...
Design & Development
Mobile Payment Processors Extend Reach with AppNinjas

June 2, 2010 • PEC Staff

The rise of mobile devices is affecting ecommerce. More consumers are using these devices to shop online and more merchants are using them to collect payments. We recently spoke with two experts in the credit card business about processing payments on mobile devices. They are John Waldr...
Conversion
Trusted Brands Drive More Traffic, But Smaller Merchants Can Compete

June 2, 2010 • Armando Roggio

In the U.S., the largest 25 online retailers enjoyed improved sales in the first quarter of 2010 while all other retailers struggled. To perform better, some smaller online merchants should seek to drive more traffic with brand-based marketing, a topic that was discussed during a rece...
Conversion
Ten Great Ecommerce Ideas for June 2010

June 1, 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 June 2010 installment of "Great Ecommerce Ideas." Use a Thank You Page “An order confirmation is good, but a ‘thank ...
Social Media
The PEC Review: TwitPic, for Sharing Photos on Twitter

June 1, 2010 • Armando Roggio

Social media marketing is one of the most potent new promotional trends available to ecommerce businesses. Services like Twitter allow you to build two-way relationships with your customers wherein you can get nearly instant feedback about your product offerings and promotions, and gain...
Business
May 2010 Top Ten: Our Most Popular Posts

May 31, 2010 • Kate Monteith

It is always interesting to learn which of the Practical eCommerce posts are receiving the most reads each month. Here are the ten most popular articles in May 2010, based on the number of page views. Ten Great Ecommerce Ideas for May 2010 Each month, we ask industry insiders for bite...
Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: King Cart Services

May 28, 2010 • Kate Monteith

This week, we'll hear from Marshall Dudley, the founder and owner of King Cart Services. The company is based in Knoxville, Tenn., and its ecommerce platform currently serves roughly 1,000 users. We'll also hear from a customer, A. P. Jones of All Predator Calls, an online store based in St. George, Utah that sells a variety of wildlife calls and related hunting accessories.
Business
Fractured Mobile Market Poses Challenges for Merchants, Developers

May 27, 2010 • Brendan Gibbons

With the growth in popularity of several different mobile devices using the Android OS, the mobile environment is becoming increasingly diverse. AdMob, the mobile advertising network that tracks monthly usage statistics on mobile devices, reported that in September 2009, the HTC Dream...
Conversion
10 Questions on Product Recommendations

May 27, 2010 • PEC Staff

Many merchants use automated product recommendations to increase sales and conversions. These recommendations are usually dynamically generated on an ecommerce site, and they are typically based on the purchase habits of a particular customer, or a group of customers. Strands Recommend...
Marketing & Advertising
The Skinny on Google Maps Street View

May 26, 2010 • Brendan Gibbons

For years, Google has sent its search bots to crawl the web, indexing content and images in order to rank search results. As Google Maps has become more complex and accurate, however, Google has been crawling the streets, as well, using vans topped with 360-degree cameras. The goal is t...
Social Media
6 Facebook Apps to Enhance Your Company’s Fan Page

May 26, 2010 • Paul Chaney

It was only a few years ago that businesses realized they needed a website. Now, everyone seems to be coming to the same conclusion about Facebook, and the best way for a business to establish a presence there is via a Fan page. We typically think of Facebook Fan pages as being a conv...