Page 256 – Practical Ecommerce

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Conversion
Five Fast Steps to Improve Website Usability

May 7, 2008 • Lisa Wehr

Problem: Your website doesn't work like it should, and every day you're losing sales because of it. As much as you'd like to take the time to comprehensively study the problem, you've decided you can't afford to wait. In many instances, you should take some time to step back and look at...
Fraud Prevention
Many Effective Tools to Detect Stolen Credit Cards, Part 3 of 3

May 5, 2008 • Jennifer D. Meacham

This is the third and final installment in a series outlining and explaining tools to identify and prevent credit card fraud. Previously, we discussed different methods of verification and geographic order tracking. Here are a few more methods you can use to combat fraud. Fraud scoring...
Business
Conversion: Proflowers.com Ranks High

May 5, 2008 • Mat Greenfield

When Nielsen Online releases its list of highest converting ecommerce websites, Proflowers.com is frequently in the top ten. The latest numbers has it at a stunning 15 percent conversion rate. I'm always open to learn from the best, and while I'm not going to do a page-by-page review o...
Conversion
Pay-per-click Advertising: Try The Home Page For A Landing Page

May 5, 2008 • Bryan Bacarella

Over the last couple years a lot of emphasis has been put on creating the perfect pay-per-click landing page. The overall landing page strategy is to create a clear call to action on the page and to have relevant content relating to the search query and ad text. After you've followed ...
Fraud Prevention
Effective Tools to Detect Stolen Credit Cards, Part 2 Of 3

May 5, 2008 • Jennifer D. Meacham

Many online merchants are already on board with fraud-detection technology. To fill in the gaps, here is part two of a comprehensive list of fraud detection strategies. Previously we discussed authorization and address and credit card verification. Here are five more ways to catch fraud...
Business
Jason Keenan, Media Advisor with ICANN

May 2, 2008 • PEC Staff

Jason Keenan is the Media Advisor with ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Name and Numbers, which regulates domain names globally. ICANN was created in 1998 to perform various Internet ...
Business
Saatchi-gallery.uk.co Promotes Art And Artists

May 1, 2008 • PEC Staff

In 1973 advertising executive Charles Saatchi bought his first painting. It was a realist work that depicted suburban houses. He’s since been called the world’s most voracious collector of contemporary art. In 1985, he opened his own gallery, The Saatchi Gallery. In 2006, the gallery la...
Fraud Prevention
Effective Tools to Detect Stolen Credit Cards, Part 1 Of 3

April 30, 2008 • Jennifer D. Meacham

There are hundreds of branded tools that ecommerce merchants can turn to for help in catching fraudulent credit card orders. Some tools are free, and some come bundled or offered as additional features in payment processing systems like Authorize.net and Google Checkout. Others can be s...
Design & Development
Internet Security: The Seatbelt Is In The Trunk

April 30, 2008 • Michael A. Cox

Suppose you took delivery on your new car and the salesman told you, as you signed the order, that the seatbelt, antilock brakes, and the airbags were in a box in the trunk and that if you want to be safer you might want to have an expensive expert install them. That would be about the ...
Social Media
A Social Media Symphony

April 28, 2008 • Paul Chaney

How often do you find a classical musician who is not only a virtuoso on his or her appointed instrument, but who demonstrates Internet marketing virtuosity as well? Allow me to introduce you to classical pianist Grace Nikae and her website, Gracenikae.com. From looking at her website, ...
Design & Development
PCI Compliance Is “Industry Self-Regulation”

April 28, 2008 • PEC Staff

The major credit card companies, Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express, have collaborated on minimum payment-processing security requirements. These requirements make up the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Merchants and merchant account providers who wo...
Business
Rhett McNulty, Chief Operating Officer of ShopIt

April 25, 2008 • PEC Staff

Rhett McNulty is Chief Operating Officer for ShopIt, a social networking sales application for ecommerce merchants. He joins Practical eCommerce's Kerry Murdock to discuss ShopIt and the value of social ...
Fraud Prevention
Interview: Authorize.Net President On Fraud Prevention

April 23, 2008 • PEC Staff

Authorize.Net, a CyberSource Solution, is a leading payment gateway company with many years experience in combating credit card fraud. We asked Roy Banks, President of Authorize.Net, about common errors that merchants make with fraud prevention. PeC: What's the biggest fraud-prevention...
Fraud Prevention
Credit Card Fraud: How Big Is The Problem?

April 23, 2008 • Jennifer D. Meacham

Reports of website data breaches, identity theft and credit card fraud are increasingly in the news. But is the problem as widespread as the coverage suggests? Anyone who collects payments or customer information online runs the risk of being targeted by thieves. However, the likeliho...
Social Media
Online Reputation Management

April 17, 2008 • Paul Chaney

Like it or not, people are talking about you online. They're talking about your brand, your products, industry and competition. Do you know what they are saying? If not, why not? Can you afford not to listen? There is a relatively new industry burgeoning on the Internet. It's called ...
Business
Insuring Against Fraud, Data Breaches

April 17, 2008 • Jennifer D. Meacham

A few insurance companies provide policies for credit card fraud and data breaches, covering both a merchant's hard cost of fraudulent sales and any liability for data breaches. AIG, the publicly-traded insurance company, was one of the first. AIG's insurance policy AIG has offered W...
Business
Merchants Liable For Data Breaches

April 17, 2008 • Jennifer D. Meacham

What do online merchants Art.com, Geeks.com and Bananas.com have in common? They're three in a small, but growing, list of ecommerce sites hacked for their customer's credit card data. Not only are there legal ramifications for not protecting customers' private data, but breached comp...
Conversion
Analytics: Collect The Right Data

April 16, 2008 • Michael Stebbins

"If you had just..." often starts a phrase of regret. If you had just left on time. If you had just bought that stock. In web analytics, "If you had just..." nearly always relates to loss of data. Here are two ways that data loss can erode the value of your web analytics implementatio...
Business
Legal: Security Regulation Is Coming

April 16, 2008 • John W. Dozier, Jr.

Let's consider the problem first. It wasn't until 1997 that credit cards could be "securely" used online. Obviously the definition of "securely" was rather subjective, but the consuming public was told to trust the new world of ecommerce. Ten years later, data breaches and related ident...
Customer Service
Protect Customers' Data Or Lose Your Business

April 14, 2008 • Pamela Hazelton

Back-end store security: It's the most important, yet the oft-overlooked parameter of running an online business. Without securing customer data, you have no claim to running a legitimate business. I often hear excuses of ignorance, which makes me wonder how many online store owners ta...
Email & Text Marketing
Email Marketing: Avoid This ‘Deadly’ Mistake

April 14, 2008 • Ben Chestnut

Over the years, I've seen many ecommerce store owners make one simple but deadly mistake when they get started with email marketing: They send emails to old, obsolete email addresses. Does this sound like you? You started your ecommerce store a few years ago. Even back then, you had t...
Business
Michael Stebbins, CEO and Co-founder of MarketMotive

April 11, 2008 • PEC Staff

MarketMotive CEO and Co-founder Michael Stebbins joins Practical eCommerce’s Kerry Murdock to discuss MarketMotive’s subscription-based consulting, lessons and strategy help for ecommerce merchants.
Business
Lessons Learned: Wetsuitwearhouse.com's Moleskie

April 9, 2008 • PEC Staff

"Lessons Learned" is an occasional series where we ask seasoned ecommerce professionals about their mistakes and successes. For this installment, we've asked Chris Moleskie, owner and president of Wetsuit Wearhouse, Inc., a Hagerstown, Md.-based online retailer of wetsuits and accessori...
Google Ads
Alternative Pay-per-click Advertising

April 9, 2008 • Bill Hartzer

When should you consider advertising your products on sites other than on Google, Yahoo! and MSN? By properly identifying and evaluating various second-tier PPC advertising options, you may uncover a diamond in the rough. Investigate options Investigating your options is not as hard a...
Conversion
Conversion Report Card: Firststreetonline.com

April 7, 2008 • Alan Cox

FirstStreet Online is a large, Virginia-based ecommerce company that offers gifts and lifestyle products to "boomers and beyond." The staff of FirstStreet asked Practical eCommerce to grade its site for conversion issues, which we are pleased to do. A site that is easy to find and ...
Business
Quick Query: PayPal Exec On Payment Disputes

April 7, 2008 • PEC Staff

Many ecommerce merchants allow customers to pay for their products using PayPal, the popular payment service that's owned by eBay. But some of these merchants say PayPal unfairly sides with customers if the customers dispute legitimate purchases. We asked Colin Rule, PayPal's Director o...
SEO
SEO Report Card: Pinkorpunk.com

April 2, 2008 • Jeff Muendel

I have to admit that both the design and focus of this month's report card recipient stood out from the many requests I receive. The website is not subtle, and it's probably not even pretty in the classical sense, but it's certainly fun. Pinkorpunk.com sells clothing accessories that ha...
Conversion
Bells And Whistles, Or Accessibility Stop Signs?

April 2, 2008 • Joseph Monks

With the advent of high-speed Internet, a treasure trove of possibilities presented themselves to the web developer. Java, embedded video, Flash and other coding options afforded online retailers the opportunity to provide entertainment, in addition to merchandise. Visual animation is ...
Marketing & Advertising
When SEO Isn't Really SEO

March 31, 2008 • Jeff Muendel

A potential client recently asked a good question. She regularly reads various search-engine-optimization websites, and she was confused as to the current meaning of the term "SEO." What, she wondered, was the difference between SEO and online marketing? Search engine optimization, or ...
Fraud Prevention
Field Test: Fraud Prevention, Part 3 of 3

March 31, 2008 • PEC Staff

In Field Test, Practical eCommerce gathered ten seasoned ecommerce merchants and asked each of them the same questions around a given topic. This month’s topic is fraud prevention. The participating ecommerce merchants are: Dave Norris, House of Antique Hardware; Chris Stump, Only Hamm...