Page 258 – Practical Ecommerce

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Business
Quick Query: Debbie Levitt, CEO of As Was

February 13, 2008 • PEC Staff

Debbie Levitt is the CEO of eBay’s first Certified Service Provider, As Was (Aswas.com), which offers services for online sellers including branding, design, and personalized sales and marketing strategies. Levitt is eBay’s first Certified Consultant and the first Education Specialist t...
Conversion
Mobile-optimized Websites Extend Customer Service

February 11, 2008 • Michelle Lambert

When Apple reached out to Travelocity.com to develop an iPhone-optimized website, Travelocity jumped at the chance. “It was a great opportunity for us,” said Paul Briggs, Travelocity’s Director of Customer Marketing and Loyalty. “We already had a general mobile site, but with Apple’s su...
Email & Text Marketing
Email Marketing Report Card: Delight.com

February 11, 2008 • Ben Chestnut

Delight.com sells gifts, fashion accessories and home decor items. It claims to make the online shopping experience quick, fun and simple. But what about its email marketing? Delight.com requested a review from Practical eCommerce of its email marketing activities, which we are please t...
Business
eCreamery.com: Ice Cream Made To Order

February 11, 2008 • Pat Callahan

In Omaha, Neb. is a historic neighborhood called Dundee. If it sounds vaguely familiar it may be because it is home to Warren Buffet, the second richest man in the world. It is also home to a unique parlor and online venture named eCreamery. eCreamery and its website, eCreamery.com,...
Marketing & Advertising
SEO Report Card: Agoodyarn.net

February 6, 2008 • Jeff Muendel

I don’t knit, but around the holidays I was given a fantastic sweater knitted by the gift-giver. It’s warm and unique, and just to be in the spirit, I’m wearing it as I write this. Uniqueness, of course, is also an issue in terms of search engine optimization; every page of a website ne...
Conversion
Time Is Money

February 6, 2008 • Pamela Hazelton

It never ceases to amaze me how much time people waste trying to save money. Having grown up in a small town (fewer than 2,000 people), I recognized that paying a little more for staple items locally was less costly than driving 20 miles to save a few bucks. In the business of ecommer...
Conversion
Conversion: Metrics Maximize Decision Making

February 6, 2008 • Mat Greenfield

One of the most appealing aspects of web marketing is that it is so measurable; you can actually quantify what works. Because I spend a considerable portion of my work time studying web analytics and metrics, here is a distinction I have found useful over the years: Some metrics are ...
Business
eBay Expert and eBook Author Danna Crawford

February 6, 2008 • PEC Staff

Crawford and Pat Callahan talk about upcoming social media classes offered by Danna, as well as her eBay experience.
Marketing & Advertising
Choose A Platform And Blog, Blog, Blog

February 4, 2008 • Jeff Muendel

Because search engines tend to reward blogs in several ways, corporate and ecommerce sites ought to look at the possibility of adding one or more blogs. As Stephan Spencer underscores "SEO: Blogging Your Way To The Top", search engines’ ranking algorithms revolve around links, and the b...
Design & Development
Tech Support: Passwords And Avatars

February 4, 2008 • Brian Getting

Can ecommerce merchants help their customers manage multiple user names and passwords? Many websites require users to create an account to participate. This applies to social networking sites, ecommerce sites, news sites and others. For the site owner, the strategy of requiring a user ...
Business
Quick Query: Wholesale Index's Justin Prescott

February 4, 2008 • PEC Staff

  Justin Prescott is the marketing manager for JP Communications, Inc, an Internet marketing and advertising company that publishes vertical search engines and directories, and it recently launched its Top Ten Wholesale Index site as a free tool for ecommerce managers to use in forecast...
Business
Online Merchant Caters To Serious Musicians

January 30, 2008 • Pat Callahan

Andy Rothstein has been playing electric guitars for more than 30 years. However, he had a problem that lead to an idea. The problem was that guitars did not sound as well as they should. The idea was Rothstein Guitars and its website, Guitar-mod.com, which Rothstein runs with his wife...
Business
Lessons Learned: Priceshoppe.com CEO

January 30, 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 Frank Dappah, the CEO of Priceshoppe.com, a Charlotte, N.C.-based retailer of consumer electronics, movies, games and music. Pri...
Conversion
Usability Report Card: Ceriellofinefoods.com

January 30, 2008 • Richard Kerr

Joseph Malewicki, the owner of Ceriello Fine Foods, has been an avid reader of Practical eCommerce since its inception. He sells specialty Italian foods at Ceriellofinefoods.com and, when requesting a site-grade, said, “I think I’ve nailed down the info in past issues about usability an...
Design & Development
Programming Notes: Linking To Payment Gateways

January 28, 2008 • Brian Getting

Payment gateways can be intimidating for many web developers. I have always found a certain amount of anxiety associated with them, particularly because of security requirements and presumed liability issues that could arise from insecure transactions. However, the actual integration wi...
Schools & Resources
Booklist: Brulant CEO Len Pagon

January 28, 2008 • PEC Staff

In Booklist, we ask ecommerce professionals to name some of their favorite books. For this list, we asked Len Pagon, CEO and president of Brulant, a company that combines technology, interactive marketing and creative design. The Fifth Discipline By Peter M. Senge A great source fo...
Conversion
Advertising On The Google Content Network

January 28, 2008 • Greg Laptevsky

The most common mistake Google AdWords advertisers make is assuming that Google’s search network and Google’s content network are the same. In reality, the two are very different. Below is a checklist of how one should go about settings up a content network campaign. Getting Started A...
Business
SilverDock CEO And Founder Raj Gajwani

January 25, 2008 • PEC Staff

Gajwani and Pat Callahan talk about the benefits of online video for ecommerce.
Business
Quick Query: Miva Merchant EVP Rick Wilson

January 23, 2008 • PEC Staff

Miva Merchant is a pioneering shopping cart. First launched in 1995, it rose, and then fell, with the dot-com boom and bust. Findwhat.com, a publicly traded company, purchased Miva Merchant in 2004. Findwhat.com subsequently renamed itself Miva, only to sell the Miva Merchant shopping c...
Design & Development
Get Organized With Advanced Searchbar

January 23, 2008 • Dave Young

If you are like me, you enjoy organization. Everything needs to be in order so you can work efficiently and get to things you need quickly. Most likely you spend time on the Internet doing research to enhance your business, reading interesting blogs, or watching videos that spark creati...
Design & Development
Determine Analytics Questions In Advance

January 23, 2008 • Michael Stebbins

 Once a web analytics solution is installed, the most common initial use is to validate some past event. User testing shows that 80 percent of marketers focus on charts that go up and to the right, thus validating the success of the website or an advertising campaign. I call this “web...
Schools & Resources
Booklist: Juice Media CEO Rick Enrico

January 21, 2008 • PEC Staff

In Booklist, we ask ecommerce professionals to name a few of their favorite books. For this list, we asked Rick Enrico, President and CEO of Juice Media Worldwide, a media and marketing technology company.   Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die By Chip and Dan Heath ...
Conversion
Widgets: Moving Your Web Store Into The Community

January 21, 2008 • Kevin Gold

Social media has grown to become a serious tool in a merchant’s marketing arsenal. Sites like Shopwiki.com, Thisnext.com and others provide excellent opportunities for merchants to gain favorable reviews and referrals, and other social networking sites like Del.icio.us, Reddit.com, Mys...
Design & Development
Testing Site Accessibility

January 18, 2008 • Joseph Monks

Here's how to perform a standard test to see if your website and store are accessible to the vision impaired. Let It Be Seen By All First, for PC users, open the Narrator program. For Mac users, use the APPLE+F5 keystroke to turn on VoiceOver. Do this before you open your browser. O...
Business
MarketLive Chairman And Founder Ken Burke

January 18, 2008 • PEC Staff

Burke and Pat Callahan discuss social networking as a requirement for doing business in the future.
Business
Quick Query: Certona CEO Meyar Sheik

January 16, 2008 • PEC Staff

Certona Corporation helps ecommerce merchants deliver product recommendations and customized content to their visitors. The technology, called Resonance, automates visitor traffic patterns, among other variables, and then recommends relevant products and content to each and every visito...
Conversion
PPC Report Card: Homeexchange.com

January 16, 2008 • Greg Laptevsky

Homeexchange.com helps people exchange homes while on vacation. The site has two conversion events: A $99.95 registration for one year and a $50 house-listing fee. The site’s owner recently asked Practical eCommerce to review its pay-per-click campaigns in Google and Yahoo!. In its cur...
Business
Getting Started In Exporting

January 16, 2008 • Hal Selim

Exporting can be a lucrative component of an online business. But many small business owners shy away from it simply because they have limited knowledge of the process. For these owners, there are two good places to begin. The first is creating an international section on your website ...
Schools & Resources
Booklist: Mercado CEO Corey Leibow

January 14, 2008 • PEC Staff

In Booklist, we ask ecommerce professionals to name books they are currently reading. For this list, we asked Corey Leibow, CEO and President of Mercado, an ecommerce search and merchandising provider for small-to-mid sized business. Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping By Paco Under...
Design & Development
What Makes A Site Effective?

January 14, 2008 • Mat Greenfield

A client recently asked me to do a quick-and-dirty analysis of a half dozen competitor websites. I decided to look at each competitor site and then give it a good/fair/poor rating for certain criteria. I thought that these criteria, and some explanation of what I was looking for, coul...