Page 263 – Practical Ecommerce

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SEO
SEO Report Card: VeganStore.com

August 15, 2007 • Stephan Spencer

Veganstore.com, operated by Pangea Vegan Products, is a site after my own heart. As a recently turned vegetarian (as of a year ago), I'm definitely in the target market. Too bad it's unlikely I would have discovered the site. That's because I'm not strictly vegan, and the site isn't ta...
Conversion
Site Search: Increases Conversion Rates, Average Order Value And Loyalty

August 15, 2007 • Dave Young

If your online store has hundreds of products, you may want to consider implementing a more sophisticated site search to help your customers find what they need quickly. For those of you running shops with an inventory of less than 500 products, you may only need to make sure your navig...
Conversion
Advertising Online: A Variety Of Opportunities

August 13, 2007 • Greg Laptevsky

You may find this hard to believe, but Internet marketing does not revolve solely around Google, Yahoo! and MSN. Whether you’re looking for fresh traffic, new business or just want to kick your marketing up a notch, there are other quality ad networks out there worth considering. Conte...
Conversion
Consumers Want Merchandise Their Way

August 13, 2007 • PEC Staff

At the e-tailing group, we continue to believe a two-faceted convenience will drive new prospects to test the online shopping waters, which generally results in the web receiving a greater share of this customer’s wallet. Consequently, what follows are some of the highlights from the e-...
Business
Convention(al) Wisdom: The Best Pay-Per-Click Seminars

August 8, 2007 • PEC Staff

One fortunate thing about being in the pay-per-click industry today is that there is easy access to a lot of useful and high-quality information. Whether it is magazines (such as this one), blogs, websites, and conferences and tradeshows — all are meant to help you grow your business th...
Conversion
Usability Report Card: Make These Tweaks Before Growth Occurs

August 8, 2007 • Richard Kerr

Artistream.com was formed to expand the artistic markets and opportunities for Native Americans and has ambitious expansion plans for itself. Currently, Artistream.com is a fairly basic website that lists all the prints and sculptures the artists have available for sale. The site was ch...
Conversion
Don’t Overlook The Essentials Of Business Startup

August 6, 2007 • Pamela Hazelton

I receive calls daily from store owners wondering what they can do to get ample returns on their investments in advertising and search engine optimization. Just when I think I’ve met my match, more calls pour in, and I’ve come to the realization that a good majority of small business ow...
SEO
SEO Report Card: Republicatrading.com

August 6, 2007 • Stephan Spencer

Founder Rafael Jimenez of NYC-based Latino and multi-ethnic men's streetwear brand Republica Trading Co. volunteered to have his site reviewed. That was a good call because the site misses the mark when it comes to SEO in some key areas. Before even loading the home page, I uncovered...
Conversion
Maintaining Sanity Amid Multiple PPC Campaigns

August 1, 2007 • PEC Staff

Pay-per-click search engine campaigns are becoming sophisticated to the point that they frequently require a full-time resource to manage them. In the small-business world, that’s a problem considering most small businesses don't have the funds to hire somebody full time to do that work...
SEO
SEO: Is Your Site Holiday-ready?

August 1, 2007 • Stephan Spencer

Those of you with school-age children may have been preoccupied with back-to-school, but now it’s time to start preparing your site for the holidays. The holiday shopping season is not that far off, so get on with implementing these traffic-building tips in order to achieve maximum sear...
Business
Matthew MacDonald, Author Of Creating Websites Part Two

August 1, 2007 • PEC Staff

Listen in as Practical eCommerce Contributing Editor Pat Callahan is joined by Matthew MacDonald, author of Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual for the second part of this interview. The ...
Business
Netshops.com Finds Its Niche

July 29, 2007 • PEC Staff

Company Name: NetShops Established: 1999 Revenue: About $62 million Products: Niche specialty stores Shopping Cart: Custom Quote: "We saw the opportunity to acquire and build sites...around a specific need." NetShops launched its first site in 2001 and in the past six years has amass...
Conversion
Sluggish Sales? Consider Adding Additional 800 Numbers

July 29, 2007 • Greg Laptevsky

As much people love the web, there are always those who prefer to use the phone number on the site to inquire about company’s products and services. An important question to consider is how accurately are you accounting for phone sales when planning your ad budget? What follows are seve...
Business
Matthew MacDonald, Author Of Creating Websites

July 26, 2007 • PEC Staff

Listen in as Practical eCommerce Contributing Editor Pat Callahan is joined by Matthew MacDonald, author of Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual. The conversation includes a topical discussion about the ...
Business
Bloglist: Marshall Sponder

July 22, 2007 • PEC Staff

In Bloglist, we ask ecommerce professionals to identify their favorite blogs. For this installment, we asked Marshall Sponder with Now.SEO. Name: Marshall Sponder Company: Now.Seo and IBM.com Blogs: Webmetricsguru.com, Artnewyorkcity.com Contributor to: Smartmobs.com, Biggreenblog.com ...
Customer Retention
Online Loyalty Programs Can Increase Repeat Shoppers

July 22, 2007 • Dave Young

Online merchants want to find ways to increase revenues by encouraging customers to make repeat purchases. Using an online loyalty program will certainly help, but it must be done carefully and with the right tools. There are many factors involved in creating a successful loyalty progr...
Business
Earn An Ecommerce Degree

July 22, 2007 • PEC Staff

Many online entrepreneurs may feel like they have earned an ecommerce degree from the school of hard knocks. However, for those interested in a more traditional education experience, there are degree programs specializing in ebusiness. Bachelor and master's degrees in ecommerce are ava...
Business
The Ins And Outs Of Importing

July 22, 2007 • PEC Staff

Importing can provide your ebusiness with cutting-edge products at rock-bottom prices. But it's a complicated process, and not one you want to go through alone. "Customs brokers and freight forwarders are your gateway into the world of international trade," explained Customhouse Broker...
Conversion
Photography: More Than a Decent Camera

July 18, 2007 • Pat Callahan

A picture is worth a thousand words. And in the ecommerce world, a product image can determine whether a customer makes the purchase, or not. But for potential merchant photographers, it turns out taking something as simple as a picture isn't really all the simple. The process often tim...
Conversion
Usability Report Card: Acihoist.com

July 18, 2007 • Richard Kerr

Alan Gonzalez at ACI Hoist & Crane, Inc. recently inherited the responsibilities for the company's website, Acihoist.com, and its ecommerce push. He is in the early stages of improving the site's navigation and content, but asked for a site review. Gonzales said the plan is “to do a...
Design & Development
Tech Support July 2007: Accessibility

July 16, 2007 • Brian Getting

I keep hearing about accessibility. What is it and why is it important? Accessibility, in the context of a website, is the measure of how easily people with disabilities can perceive, navigate, access and interact with electronic content and information. People with disabilities face...
Customer Retention
SMBs Should Consider Surveys

July 15, 2007 • Pamela Hazelton

The online store that makes me feel awesome even after my product(s) have been delivered will get my business next time around. Their URL will be committed to memory, and I’ll visit the site often just to see what’s new. This store must cater to my needs, treat me like a person and does...
Conversion
SellPoint Offers “Active” Product Tours

July 13, 2007 • Pat Callahan

Ecommerce businesses want to move more merchandise. A service called SellPoint can help with this, by creating, hosting and syndicating customizable product tours. These tours integrate detailed, 360-degree images, combined with video, animation, product statistics, data sheets and even...
Business
Learning Bookkeeping Basics

July 12, 2007 • PEC Staff

Poor financial management is one key contributor to why more than 50 percent of small businesses fail in the first five years of existence, according to the Small Business Administration. Because ecommerce has such low barriers to entry — a few bucks for a hosted shopping cart and a fe...
Business
Interview: UPS V.P. On Shipping Technology

July 11, 2007 • Michael A. Cox

When Jordan Colletta talks about the way we used to ship and track and deliver goods before it became a way of life for thousands of e-entrepreneurs, he knows what he's talking about. For three years, starting in 1975, he was one of those guys you see running in and out of businesse...
Checkout Tactics
Lowering Shopping Cart Abandonment

July 11, 2007 • Greg Laptevsky

As an ecommerce owner, you always want to make the checkout process as quick and smooth as possible for your own ecommerce customers. Here’s a quick checklist of simple website changes that could help you lower shopping cart abandonment. Prominent “Add to Cart” button Make sure that a...
Business
The Law Of PPC Advertising

July 9, 2007 • John W. Dozier, Jr.

Many of the legal issues existing today have little, or no, clear legal authority to guide us. This is because many of the abuses are: • Not discovered. • When they are discovered by the advertiser, they are settled confidentially. • When litigated it can take years to get a decision...
Conversion
SERPs And Personalized Search

July 6, 2007 • Greg Laptevsky

I know what you did last summer. Scared yet? Before you call 911 and report me as a stalker, let me assure you I did no such thing. However, by 2008, your search engine might. It’s called Personalized Search. I will leave it up to the lawyers to worry about privacy concerns, and will ...
Business
Boosting Your Programming Skills

July 4, 2007 • PEC Staff

If you're tired of calling your web design firm every time you want to make a minor tweak to your site, there are online courses you can take to boost your knowledge in HTML, JavaScript, cascading style sheets and more. In fact, there are so many online options to improve programming s...
Business
Video Tutorial: Rounded Corners with CSS

July 2, 2007 • Brian Getting

Rounded corners present a unique challenge to website designers, particularly when using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to create layouts that are search engine friendly and scalable. In an attempt to de-mystify some of the techniques used to create visual effects, such as rounded corner...