Page 232 – Practical Ecommerce

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Design & Dev Tools
The PEC Review: LABjs for Better Site Performance

March 15, 2010 • Armando Roggio

Many small- to medium-sized online retailers are entrepreneurial companies. Their owners and employees often have diverse responsibilities, and it is common for a single person to handle multiple tasks, such as customer service, email marketing, order processing and website design. Unf...
Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: VevoCart

March 12, 2010 • Kate Monteith

This week, we'll hear from John Panyavorachart, co-founder and CEO of Vevo Systems, developers of VevoCart. The company is located in Bangkok, Thailand, and its shopping cart currently serves around 6,000 users. We'll also hear from a VevoCart customer, Stephen Bowden, director of marketing and operations for Tres Beau, a site that sells wedding accessories.
Marketing & Advertising
Ask an Expert: Tools to Encourage Customer Feedback?

March 11, 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 how to encourage customer feedback. It comes from Rita Perdue, CEO and owner of Pick My Decor, an online store that sells home décor...
User Experience
Accessibility Review: Target.com

March 11, 2010 • Joseph C. Dolson

Target.com is well known in the world of web accessibility. It was sued in 2006 by the National Federation of the Blind, Bruce F. Sexton, Jr., and the National Federation of the Blind of California because its website was not accessible to visually impaired shoppers. The lawsuit was ult...
Business
Quick Query: SoundsTrue.com Sells Educational Products in Multiple Formats

March 10, 2010 • PEC Staff

Sounds True is a Colorado-based provider of products and services to enable spiritual development. It was founded in the 1980s, and its business model is both interesting and sophisticated. It sells products via wholesale channels; it publishes a catalog; it offers online courses; and i...
Marketing & Advertising
February Survey Results: Social Media in Ecommerce

March 9, 2010 • Kate Monteith

Social marketing experts have been trumpeting the advantages of using social sites such as Twitter and Facebook to promote ecommerce businesses. We wondered how many of our readers are using social media sites as a marketing channel and whether it has helped or hurt their businesses. ...
Analytics & Data
The Metrics for Video Success

March 9, 2010 • Armando Roggio

Many online stores have begun to include product videos aimed at boosting sales conversions, reducing shopping cart abandonment, and lowering product return rates. But not all product-related videos are the same, and merchants will need some metrics for measuring which videos are, in fa...
Marketing & Advertising
Microsoft, Yahoo! Search-engine Partnership: Frequently Asked Questions

March 8, 2010 • PEC Staff

The agreement for Yahoo! to use Microsoft's Bing search platform has been approved by U.S. and European authorities. We wonder what this agreement means for ecommerce merchants. Greg Laptevsky, a Practical eCommerce contributor and a seasoned search marketing expert, provides some answe...
Platforms & Apps
The PEC Review: Chimpified Connects Two Powerful Platforms

March 8, 2010 • Armando Roggio

There are thousands of ecommerce-related products and services that small- to mid-sized merchants can use to improve their businesses. But often the challenge to engaging these products and services is not funding, or even the products' capabilities. Instead, it is the difficulty associ...
Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: BV Commerce

March 5, 2010 • Kate Monteith

This week, we'll hear from Marcus C. McConnell, founder and president of BV Software, the developers of the hosted BV Commerce shopping cart and a licensed ecommerce package called BV Commerce Toolkit. The company is based in Richmond, Va. and its ecommerce software currently has around 5,000 active users. We'll also hear from a BV Commerce customer
Marketing & Advertising
Visual Search to Grow with Mobile Commerce

March 4, 2010 • Brendan Gibbons

Visual search is a new technology that's likely to impact the mobile commerce space. It allows mobile users to snap pictures of just about anything on their devices and then search for relevant online content based on the photo itself. This technology is useful for mobile users who ar...
Shipping & Fulfillment
Order Fulfillment: ‘Kitting’ Can Dramatically Slash Your Costs

March 4, 2010 • John Lindberg

The term “kitting” is order fulfillment jargon for preassembly of individual items into ready-to-ship kits instead of picking and packing those individual items as orders are received. If you ship similar orders in quantity, the savings potential of fulfillment kitting can be huge. A ...
Business
Quick Query: Restaurant Owner Uses Website to Facilitate Reservations, Promote Menu

March 3, 2010 • PEC Staff

Service-related businesses are finding new customers and new marketing opportunities online. This includes restaurants, which have increasingly embraced the web to promote menu offerings and dinner specials, and to facilitate reservations, provide directions and much more. A restaurant ...
Product Pages
The PEC Review: RateVoice Offers Product Reviews with Social Twist

March 3, 2010 • Armando Roggio

Adding product reviews to your ecommerce site will boost sales, drive additional traffic, and help you optimize your product catalog. In 2007, when PETCO added customer product reviews to its site, this purveyor of pet products enjoyed a 49 percent increase in sales conversions for its...
Conversion
Ten Google Services to Help Your Ecommerce Business

March 2, 2010 • Michael Stearns

If you are an ecommerce merchant, your business likely cannot survive without search engine exposure through Google. But Google has over one hundred other services and products that have blossomed from its core web search tool. Just keeping up with the names of these products is challen...
Conversion
Ten Great Ecommerce Ideas for March 2010

March 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 March 2010 installment of "Great Ecommerce Ideas." "Add to Cart" vs. "Buy" "Use phrases like 'Add to Cart' on your...
Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: CoreCommerce

February 26, 2010 • Kate Monteith

This week, we'll hear from Matt DeLong, president and CEO of CoreCommerce, developers of CoreCommerce shopping cart software. The company is based in Franklin Tenn., and its software has been used to create between 12,000 and 13,000 web stores, according to DeLong.
Design & Development
Mobile Commerce Appeals to Young Adults

February 25, 2010 • Brendan Gibbons

While it is true mobile devices are generating more web traffic, merchants should be aware of the demographics of mobile users and the products they are buying. Surveys taken in early 2010 have similar results in the age breakdown of mobile users. One survey by Retrevo, a shopping com...
Marketing & Advertising
Ask an Expert: Examples of Social Media Marketing Success?

February 25, 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 social media marketing. It comes from Theresa Fox, managing director of direct and digital initiatives at Sounds True, an online sto...
Business
Quick Query: Covario’s Stephan Spencer on Mobile Commerce

February 24, 2010 • PEC Staff

An increasing number of consumers access the Internet via mobile devices. This has looming implications for ecommerce merchants who must decide what platforms their customers will use in the future. Third party services can help owners migrate their sites to mobile devices and one of th...
Design & Development
Five Web Design Concepts Ecommerce Merchants Need to Know

February 23, 2010 • Armando Roggio

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...
Social Media
Social Media: OTC Sports Uses Facebook, Twitter to Engage Like-minded Consumers

February 23, 2010 • Paul Chaney

Editor's Note: This is the first in series of interviews with ecommerce merchants on their use of social media. OTC Sports is a family-run specialty dealer of premium baseball and softball equipment. It targets serious, tournament-level ballplayers. We spoke with the owner, Jeff LeRic...
Design & Development
SEO Expert on Mobile Commerce Strategies

February 23, 2010 • PEC Staff

An increasing number of consumers access the Internet via mobile devices. This has looming implications for ecommerce merchants who must decide what platforms their customers will use in the future.
Platforms & Apps
The PeC Review: LemonStand is One Sweet Cart

February 22, 2010 • Armando Roggio

The shopping-cart platform that an online business chooses can have a significant impact on its sales success. Select a cart that is too simple or basic and it may not scale as your company grows or it may not offer the features you need to cross-sell, merchandise, or engage loyal cust...
Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: ezStore123 by Digital Things

February 19, 2010 • Kate Monteith

This week, we'll hear from Michael M. Gioan, general manager for Digital Things, LLC, the Huntington Beach, Calif.-based producers of ezStore123 shopping cart software. According to Gioan, the cart currently has around 40 users. "Until 2009, it was sold as a custom application. It has now been 'productized' with standard features and corresponding
Design & Development
Simplicity Key for Mobile-optimized Ecommerce Sites

February 18, 2010 • Brendan Gibbons

We recently reported how mobile Internet devices outsold computers in 2009. And, while the percentage of ecommerce sales conducted on a mobile device is still small (0.8 percent is a generous estimate), this number is increasing. Many ecommerce vendors are beginning to offer mobile sol...
Photography & Video
Putting Video On Your Ecommerce Site, A Webinar Preview

February 18, 2010 • Armando Roggio

Product-oriented videos help shoppers understand what they are buying, reduce shopping cart abandonment, and boost conversion rates by as much as 30 percent. Perhaps because of these reasons, ecommerce video is increasingly popular. Forrester Research, for example, estimated that 65 pe...
Business
Authorize.Net Exec Offers Fraud Prevention Tips

February 18, 2010 • PEC Staff

There are dozens of credit card fraud prevention services. Some cost money, some are free, and their approach to fraud prevention can vary. So, what are small merchants to do to prevent fraud and how much money should they spend in the process? A fraud prevention expert is here to addre...
Link Building
SEO: Link Bait Can Increase Rankings

February 17, 2010 • Jill Kocher Brown

Link bait is the practice of creating useful or compelling content that will lure links naturally to a website. It’s fun, it’s trendy, and it can produce very big search-engine-optimization results. Contrary to most interactive marketing goals, link bait’s primary goal is increasing t...
Design & Development
Mobile Commerce: Experts Offer Strategy for Smaller Merchants

February 16, 2010 • Brendan Gibbons

Depending on the source, analysts predict U.S. ecommerce merchants will generate in 2010 between $120 billion and $200 billion sales. Mobile commerce is a small fraction of this total. But as mobile usage becomes mainstream, and as a variety of devices expand the mobile web, online reta...