Page 61 – Practical Ecommerce

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Business
Remembering Hamlet Batista

February 8, 2021 • Kerry Murdock

All of us here mourn the death last month of Hamlet Batista, our friend and contributor. Hamlet first appeared in Practical Ecommerce in an interview. A mutual acquaintance, an SEO practitioner, had suggested that we publish his views. “He’s really smart,” said the acquaintance. “He’s applying for a genius visa.”
Customer Retention
Want Repeat Customers? Foster Long-term Relationships

February 8, 2021 • Pamela Hazelton

Successful brands make a point of building long term relationships with customers. It’s a crucial step in a company’s growth. But it takes more than exclusive deals and special features. Here are seven ways to foster long-lasting relationships.
Staffing
The Benefits of an Ecommerce Technology Advocate

February 7, 2021 • Armando Roggio

Managing an ecommerce technology stack is complicated. Many companies could use help. "As the marketplace for ecommerce [software] starts to broaden and becomes more complex, adding platforms and apps [can be] really hard," said Mark Wexler, a founder and partner at Whirlwind Ecommerce.
Business
Lessons from a Friendly Bet: Beardbrand vs. Supply.co

February 5, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Patrick Coddou's company, Supply.co, sells razors and shaving accessories. My company, Beardbrand, sells beard products. He wants men to shave. I want them to grow a beard. We're both direct-to-consumer ecommerce merchants selling premium grooming items to males. We're competitors, in other words.
Google Ads
5 Practical Uses for Google Ads Editor

February 4, 2021 • Matthew Umbro

Many tools can help manage a Google Ads account. But the most effective, in my experience, is Google Ads Editor. It's an offline application to download an account and make bulk edits and additions. The tool has saved me days of tedious work by turning hours-long tasks into minutes.
Business
5 Content Marketing Ideas for March 2021

February 3, 2021 • Armando Roggio

Content marketing is the act of publishing articles, videos, and similar to attract, engage, and retain customers and prospects. What follows are five content marketing ideas your business can use in March 2021.
Payments
Digital Payments in China Are Cheap and Convenient

February 2, 2021 • Mike Eckler

In "China Is Dominating Ecommerce," contributor Marcia Kaplan addressed that country's innovation in online shopping. Digital payments in China are equally innovative. I'll address what that could mean for North American merchants in this post.
Social Media
Social Media Updates for Commerce, Live-streaming, More

February 2, 2021 • Sig Ueland

Social media sites help businesses build a brand, engage customers, and sell products. Many popular networks continue to innovate with new features, particularly around ecommerce. Here is a list of social media updates to explore in 2021.
Business
January 2021 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts

February 1, 2021 • PEC Staff

Our mission since 2005 is to publishing unbiased, independent content to help ecommerce merchants. What follows are the 10 most popular articles that we published in January 2021. Articles from early in the month are more likely to make the list than later ones.
SEO
SEO for Google Shopping

February 1, 2021 • Bill Sebald

Google has a storied history with services for ecommerce products. The first was Froogle. Then Google Base absorbed Froogle. Both provided a method for merchants to inform Google about their products to improve visibility in organic search results.
Platforms & Apps
Ecommerce Product Releases: February 1, 2021

February 1, 2021 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of product releases and updates for late January from companies that offer services to online merchants. There are updates on user experience tools, monetizing newsletters, promotional incentives, fulfillment, and hiring a developer.
Marketing & Advertising
Adding SMS to an Ecommerce Marketing Mix

January 31, 2021 • Armando Roggio

Text messaging can help ecommerce marketers engage and retain customers, but it is not a replacement for email communication or mobile apps. How does an ecommerce marketer use SMS? Here are seven tips to help.
Business
DecksDirect, a Pure Retailer, Thrives

January 29, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

Industry pundits might say the future of retail is brands, manufacturers, and marketplaces. But don't tell that to Blair Budlong. His company, DecksDirect, doesn't own a brand, manufacture a product, or sell on marketplaces. And it thrives.
Marketing & Advertising
Using TikTok for Ecommerce Marketing

January 28, 2021 • Kaleena Stroud

TikTok is a relative newcomer to the social media world, having launched as A.me in 2016 in Beijing, China. Once viewed as a passing phase, TikTok now has more than 200 million downloads in the U.S. and 2 billion worldwide. It's among the most downloaded apps in Google Play and the Apple App Store.
Amazon & Marketplaces
Everything to Know about Amazon Marketplace Sellers

January 28, 2021 • Marcia Kaplan

Amazon marketplace sellers are diverse, spanning many countries, age groups, and reasons for participating. What follows is a summary of demographic and psychographic data about sellers.
Technical SEO
Don’t Overlook Technical SEO in 2021

January 27, 2021 • Armando Roggio

Good ecommerce and blogging platforms should, by default, take care of most technical search engine optimization concerns. But this doesn't mean B2B and B2C ecommerce companies can ignore technical SEO in 2021.
Conversion
Charts: Conversion Rates by Ad Channel

January 26, 2021 • Anna Kayfitz

Benchmarking digital marketing campaigns is a good way to track their effectiveness. Monitoring conversion rates will help optimize the creative, target market, placement, and channel. But a better indicator of marketing success is the cost per conversion.
Conversion
What’s the Future of Traditional Retail?

January 25, 2021 • Armando Roggio

The combination of Covid-19 lockdowns, supply chain problems, and economic woes accelerated the adoption of digital retailing in several areas of the economy. While some experts believe this will result in more individual retail businesses, it may be an indication that the traditional retail model will not work or at least not work as well in the near future.
Shipping & Fulfillment
8 Commercial Drone Delivery Companies

January 25, 2021 • Sig Ueland

The development of autonomous drone technologies has surged in the last five years. New FAA rules anticipate a commercial drone industry in the U.S. Here is a list of companies spearheading the advancement of drone delivery.
B2B
B2B Lessons from 2020

January 24, 2021 • Lori McDonald

Covid-19 forced all of us to change. Companies and employees who had resisted digital innovation suddenly had no choice. Some of the changes have created value and are worth keeping. Others not so much. What follows are pandemic-induced B2B changes that will likely become permanent.
Business
Dr. Squatch Scales to $100 Million with Natural Soaps for Men

January 22, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

In 2013 Jack Haldrup was reading "The Lean Startup" and pondering how to launch a business. Fast forward to 2021, and Dr. Squatch, Haldrup's company, sells millions in natural soaps and grooming products.
Customer Service
Pandemic-driven Shoppers Expect More from Ecommerce

January 21, 2021 • Pamela Hazelton

The pandemic has upped consumers' digital expectations. What was once the exception is now the norm. Telemedicine, online learning, virtual meetings — all have advanced in the past year. Ecommerce stores must evolve, too, in how they engage and interact with shoppers.
Fraud Prevention
Porch Piracy Is Growing

January 20, 2021 • Armando Roggio

Porch piracy is on the rise, with 43 percent of American consumers surveyed saying they had an ecommerce delivery pilfered from their front porch in 2020, according to a recent report. C+R Research asked 2,000 self-reporting shoppers about delivery theft in November 2020.
Fraud Prevention
Online Fraud in 2021 Is Booming

January 19, 2021 • Armando Roggio

Fraud-prevention expert Uri Arad will give an exclusive, live-stream presentation to the CommerceCo by Practical Ecommerce peer-to-peer community on Thursday, January 21, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
Email & Text Marketing
Quick Refresher of U.S. CAN-SPAM Requirements

January 18, 2021 • Carolyn Nye

New consumer privacy laws in the U.S. and elsewhere apply to many forms of digital promotion, including email marketing. Thus it's worth reviewing the requirements of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, which sets rules for the use of commercial email to U.S.-based recipients.
Conversion
Print-on-demand Services Create Sourcing Opportunities

January 18, 2021 • Armando Roggio

Technology, software, and business innovation are enabling the print-on-demand industry to expand from second-rate t-shirts, mugs, and wall art to quality manufacturing-as-a-service solutions.
Platforms & Apps
Ecommerce Product Releases: January 17, 2021

January 17, 2021 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of product releases and updates for mid-January from companies that offer services to online merchants. There are updates on delivery services, loyalty programs, social media management, payment solutions, and headless commerce.
Business
Elements Brands Founder on Moving from Doer to Manager

January 15, 2021 • Eric Bandholz

The required skills to launch a business are typically much different from managing it for the long term. Bill D'Alessandro has done both. He launched a single ecommerce business in 2010 and then transformed the company into an operator of multiple online brands. He has evolved from performing most every task to focusing on a few.
Business
2020 Holiday Sales Wrap-up

January 14, 2021 • Marcia Kaplan

Challenged by a pandemic and an unstable economy, online and brick-and-mortar retailers scrambled to salvage the 2020 holiday shopping season. Most merchants started offering discounts much earlier than in previous years to accommodate the changed shopping dynamics. This is my third consecutive holiday sales wrap-up, following installments in 2018 and 2019.
Business
Bloomreach CEO: Future of Retail Is Marketplaces, Brands

January 13, 2021 • Armando Roggio

Raj De Datta, CEO and co-founder at Bloomreach, said it succinctly, "The future of retail is marketplaces which require scale. But, the future of retail is also brands. The industry is seeing an explosion of small brands setting up shop online."