Page 252 – Practical Ecommerce

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Platforms & Apps
Cart Of The Week: ShopSite

October 24, 2008 • Brendan Gibbons

Practical eCommerce counts over 300 different shopping cart platforms. This includes licensed carts, hosted carts, and open-source carts. In this, our "Cart of the Week" feature, we’ll profile (but not evaluate) a specific shopping cart and ask personnel of that cart about its strengths...
Design & Development
Apple’s Safari Browser: “A Weak Contender”

October 23, 2008 • Brendan Gibbons

In the ongoing battle for browser supremacy Apple’s Safari is little more than humdrum, but like all things Apple it has a committed and loyal following and an opportunity to be important for mobile devices. Mozilla’s Firefox and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) are by far the most u...
Conversion
Online Reputation Management: Get Pro-Active

October 22, 2008 • Lisa Wehr

A wise entrepreneur once said that “you can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.” While computers weren’t around when Henry Ford coined the phrase, his words still resonate today. With billions of people online—and probably the same number of bloggers and social media part...
Customer Retention
Use Comparison Shopping Sites To Boost Leads

October 21, 2008 • Armando Roggio

Savvy online retailers can attract thrifty customers this holiday season with a sound comparison shopping strategy, but those merchants must be careful not to create a lot of extra work, damage their reputation, or waste money. Comparison shopping sites like Shopping.com, Bizrate.com, ...
Business
SellPoint CEO on Video and Its Impact On Conversion Rates

October 20, 2008 • PEC Staff

The use of video and rich media can enhance an ecommerce site. SellPoint is a firm that provides video and rich media (for free) to ecommerce merchants and we’ve asked ...
Business
Bloglist: buySafe Founder Steve Woda

October 20, 2008 • Brendan Gibbons

In Bloglist, we ask ecommerce professionals to share some of their favorite blogs. In this installment, we checked in with Steve Woda, founder, chairman and senior vice-president of product and strategy at buySAFE, a company that inspects online merchants, monitors their performance, an...
Platforms & Apps
Cart of the Week: Miva Merchant

October 17, 2008 • Brendan Gibbons

Practical Eommerce counts over 300 shopping cart platforms. In this installment of “Cart of the Week,” we profile Miva Merchant, a popular licensed cart launched in 1996.
Design & Development
Mobilizing The Web With Cascading Style Sheets

October 16, 2008 • Jennifer D. Meacham

Benjamin Chui isn’t taking ecommerce sitting down. The founder of Ben’s Bargain Center is striding through San Francisco’s financial district, with a smartphone in his hand and one of three mobile versions of his ecommerce website on tap. For his site Bensbargains.net, the transition t...
Business
Field Test: Video Usage On eCommerce Sites

October 15, 2008 • Brendan Gibbons

In Field Test, Practical eCommerce questions several ecommerce merchants about a given topic. This month’s topic is online video, a powerful but not widely used form of marketing that’s driven by mixed motives in theory and varied results in practice. Video FAQ’s and product demonstrat...
Platforms & Apps
Browser Review: Mozilla Firefox 3

October 14, 2008 • Armando Roggio

By some estimates, more than 1.4 billion people use the Internet for work, entertainment, or commerce. All of those web surfers must use a browser to visit websites or shop at online stores, and if browsing speed, security, and functionality matter, those users should be cruising the in...
Business
TopTenWholesale.com CEO On Vertical-Search PPC Opportunities

October 12, 2008 • PEC Staff

Many ecommerce merchants run pay-per-click ad campaigns on the major search engines. But Jason Prescott, CEO of Toptenwholesale.com, argues that merchants can obtain a higher return-on-investment by advertising on specialized ...
Business
Pay-Per-Click Report Card: Loriswigsite.com

October 10, 2008 • Greg Laptevsky

Lori’s Wigsite sells various brands of wigs for men and women. The owner asked Practical eCommerce to review her pay-per-click marketing efforts and examine how the company’s current agency does the job. Loriswigsite.com is running advertising campaigns on Google AdWords and Yahoo! Sear...
Design & Development
Mobile Commerce: 800 Million Untapped Users

October 9, 2008 • Jennifer D. Meacham

Web-capable mobile handsets and their nearly 800 million users worldwide represent a significant and largely untapped market for ecommerce retailers. Selling by phone is a concept almost as old as Alexander Graham Bell, but in the 21st century mobile commerce (m-commerce) might be more...
Google Ads
Interview: Pay-per-click Expert On 2nd Tier Ad Sites

October 8, 2008 • Bill Hartzer

Recently I sat down with Jeremy Mayes, the author of PPCDiscussions.com. In addition to writing the PPCDiscussions.com blog, Mayes has used paid search to sell millions of dollars of products and has generated millions of leads for various industries. I asked him about 2nd tier pay-per-...
Platforms & Apps
Browser Review: Internet Explorer

October 7, 2008 • Armando Roggio

When Google introduced its Chrome web browser in September, it fired the first shot in a new browser war, challenging Microsoft’s supremacy, frightening its open-source ally, Firefox, and initiating a race toward better usability and more features. To be fair, there had been plenty of ...
Payments
Amazon Payment Service Allows for Advanced Options

October 6, 2008 • Armando Roggio

Amazon.com has been offering a beta version of its Flexible Payment Service (FPS) to merchants for almost a year now. With many developer-friendly features, some sellers could benefit from adding Amazon FPS to their payment options, especially if they’re already using Amazon to sell the...
Business
Quick Query: Pilot Identifies Niche With PDF Aviation Maps

October 3, 2008 • Armando Roggio

In the United States there will be 590,349 pilots collectively flying some 28 million hours in 228,000 different aircraft this year alone, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). To navigate, those pilots use altimeters, global positioning, and good old-fashioned ma...
Conversion
Trigger-Based Email Marketing Improves Sales and Customer Experience

October 2, 2008 • Jennifer D. Meacham

Trigger marketing is the next step for the critical ecommerce function of automated email communications. While traditional automated emails follow newsletter sign-ups and orders, trigger marketing sends emails for other events such as particular search patterns, customer birthdays, hol...
Photography & Video
Video Boosts Sales for Online Retailers

October 1, 2008 • Armando Roggio

At brick-and-mortar retailers, shoppers can stroll the isles, handle items, speak to clerks, and receive well placed merchandising messages. It’s not that easy for ecommerce merchants. They must find new and inventive ways to engage and convert customers; using well written and persuasi...
Conversion
Web Widgets Come Of Age For Ecommerce Sites

September 30, 2008 • Jennifer D. Meacham

For executives like Braden Hoeppner, director of web sales for optical store Coastalcontacts.com, today’s web widgets are a fast and easy way to improve customer service and create interest. Thanks to the widget behind Coastalcontacts.com’s “Tell a friend” link, “we got more features t...
Marketing & Advertising
SEO Report Card: Icewraps.net

September 29, 2008 • Jeff Muendel

I went on a hike this weekend and it was a lot of fun—until the next day when I began to feel as if I had participated in something more like a death march. My leg muscles were so sore, it was tough to trek through the grocery store in search of ibuprofen. In honor of my pain (it’...
Google Ads
Seven Tactics to Boost Online Banner-ad Response Rates

September 26, 2008 • Armando Roggio

Ecommerce has been the great equalizer for retailers—a small book store in Iowa can oftentimes compete with Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Amazon for customers in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago or the world, but equality isn't always good. There are times when it's good to have a comp...
Platforms & Apps
Magento's iPhone Theme: Mobile Commerce for the Masses?

September 24, 2008 • Armando Roggio

Magento Commerce, an open source ecommerce platform, has introduced an Apple iPhone specific theme that is potentially the first step toward leveling the playing field for small online retailers who want to compete in the lucrative and booming mobile ecommerce market. Mobile eCommerce ...
Conversion
Christmas Is Coming: Six Quick Online Marketing Tips

September 23, 2008 • Lisa Wehr

Christmas is coming. And now is the time for you to take a hard look at your current search engine marketing campaigns. With billions of dollars up for grabs, your online marketing needs to be well-planned, well-executed, and well-optimized. Be Ready When Shoppers Come Calling Here ar...
Platforms & Apps
Yahoo! Store Users: SSL Servers are Moving

September 22, 2008 • Armando Roggio

Yahoo! Merchant Solutions, a leading ecommerce provider, is migrating its secure socket layer (SSL) certificates to new servers, improving their system's flexibility, but forcing some e-retailers to make changes to their stores before an October 15 deadline to avoid cart errors. The SS...
Business
RatePoint CEO On Reputation Management

September 22, 2008 • PEC Staff

With the existence of social networking and consumer review sites, disgruntled customers can post negative comments about an ecommerce merchant and cause lasting harm. Neal Creighton is CEO of RatePoint,
Marketing & Advertising
Coordinate Pay-per-click Advertising With SEO Efforts

September 19, 2008 • Pamela Nelson

The goal of a pay-per-click advertising campaign is to attract qualified traffic to a website in an effort to have searchers convert on a desired action. That action could be a sale, filling out a lead form, requesting information and so forth. The goal of search engine optimization i...
Business
Pirated Software Rampant Among Personal Computer Users

September 18, 2008 • Michael A. Cox

To somebody who has never owned or made his living creating and licensing intellectual property, it may not be a big deal. Really, who is it going to hurt when someone downloads a piece of software without paying for it and uses it for personal gain? Or, what’s the harm when a kid down...
Design & Development
Open-Source Alternatives To Microsoft Office, Part II

September 17, 2008 • Jennifer D. Meacham

In part I of this series we looked at why the use of open-source software is now gaining momentum. Here, we take a look at some of the most-recognized open-source alternatives to Microsoft Office “Light” desktop MS Office alternatives KOffice is one “light” answer to Microsoft Office ...
Design & Development
Open-Source Alternatives To Microsoft Office, Part I

September 15, 2008 • Jennifer D. Meacham

Ten years ago, a tiny software community launched free Microsoft-like programs for those with UNIX or Linux computer operating systems. A few months ago, this software community—known as KDE—rolled out its first free Office-style software for Windows users. It’s a competitive first fo...