Page 67 – Practical Ecommerce

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Product Pages
Essential Elements of an Ecommerce Product Page

September 1, 2020 • Armando Roggio

The elements of an ecommerce product detail page should work together to help shoppers make sound buying decisions. Each element — prose description, a list of features, product photos, videos — should tell part of an item's story.
Platforms & Apps
Ecommerce Product Releases: September 1, 2020

September 1, 2020 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of product releases and updates for late-August from companies that offer services to online merchants. There are updates on social commerce, brand building, shopping in augmented reality, live-streaming premium events, and ecommerce for social good.
Conversion
Using Site Search Reports in Google Analytics to Improve Product Selection

August 31, 2020 • Seby Kallarakkal

Internal site search is the equivalent of someone walking into a physical store and asking for a product. The storekeeper would develop an understanding of what shoppers want based on the requests. In the digital world, Google Analytics can store all of these questions. In this post, I'll address how to configure site search in Google Analytics to improve your ecommerce product selection.
Business
August 2020 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts

August 31, 2020 • PEC Staff

Our mission since 2005 is to publish articles, webinars, and podcasts to help ecommerce merchants. What follows are the 10 most popular articles that we published in August 2020. Articles from early in the month are more likely to make the list than later ones.
Amazon & Marketplaces
25 Top Amazon Marketplace Sellers Based on Number of Reviews

August 31, 2020 • Sig Ueland

Reviewing the top sellers on Amazon's marketplace could provide ideas on products, descriptions, and customer service. Here is a list of top sellers on the Amazon marketplace based on the number of reviews.
Marketing & Advertising
Using Instagram Video for Ecommerce

August 30, 2020 • Kaleena Stroud

Since it launched Stories in 2016 and TV in June 2018, Instagram has positioned itself as a destination for consuming videos. Instagram's "Reels," which mimics TikTok, follows that trend. In this post, I'll address options for posting videos on Instagram to drive awareness and sales for your ecommerce company.
Business
Supply.co Founder: Day of Reckoning Is Coming for DTC Brands

August 28, 2020 • Eric Bandholz

Patrick Coddou has little patience with the concept of lifetime customer value or paying more to acquire a customer than he can recoup on the initial purchase.
Business
Ecommerce in Q2 Takes a (Much) Bigger Share of Total Retail Market

August 27, 2020 • Marcia Kaplan

The U.S. Department of Commerce reports that ecommerce as a percent of all retail sales jumped from 11.8 percent in the first quarter of 2020 to 16.1 percent in the second quarter, representing a 31.8 percent increase to $211.5 billion. The data also shows a 44.5 percent bump from the second quarter of 2019, adjusted for seasonal variations.
Google Ads
What Is Performance Marketing?

August 26, 2020 • Armando Roggio

With performance marketing, businesses pay only when they get results. While it doesn't necessarily guarantee a good return on investment, performance marketing is often a contributor to success for ecommerce merchants.
Marketing & Advertising
OTT Ads Are an Opportunity for Established Retailers

August 25, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Streaming commercials — which are called over-the-top (OTT) ads because most cable and streaming boxes used to sit on top of televisions — can provide a level of audience targeting that is similar to search engine marketing, social media advertising, and affiliate marketing.
SEO
SEO: Where to Start When You Need to Fix Everything

August 25, 2020 • Jill Kocher Brown

Optimizing a site for organic search can be overwhelming when you’re staring at a blank slate. Where do you start? The good news is that there are three definitive steps when you're getting started.
Payments
What Merchants Should Know about ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’

August 24, 2020 • Mike Eckler

"Buy now, pay later" allows consumers to purchase goods and pay in installments, similar to a credit card. Why is BNPL gaining popularity? I’ll answer that question and more in this post.
Platforms & Apps
23 Chrome Extensions for Productivity

August 24, 2020 • Sig Ueland

Looking to supercharge your workflow? Consider installing productivity extensions on your Chrome browser. Here is a list of useful extensions from Google’s Chrome Web Store. There are tools to keep you on task and block distractions, utilize video and audio, distribute content, automate, and reduce digital clutter.
Conversion
9 Holiday Selling Tips to Pandemic-driven Consumers

August 23, 2020 • Pamela Hazelton

The holiday 2020 shopping season will be unique. Pandemic-driven concerns of safety and economic uncertainty will prompt shoppers to look for both functional and entertaining gifts at competitive prices. Here are some tips for ecommerce merchants to gear up now.
Business
A ‘Love for Making’ Propels Schmidt’s Naturals to Worldwide Sales

August 21, 2020 • Eric Bandholz

The progression for most direct-to-consumer entrepreneurs is to conceive a product idea and then locate a manufacturer to produce it. But Jaime Schmidt took the opposite approach when she launched Schmidt's natural deodorant in 2010. "I started in our kitchen with batch sizes of maybe 20 deodorants on the stove," she told me.
Business > Merchant Voice
The 3 rules of ecommerce design

August 20, 2020 • Richard Stubbings

My ecommerce website went through many visual changes in the 20 years that I operated it, from 2000 to 2020. Sometimes I retained a designer, and sometimes I did it myself using the ecommerce software I was using at the time. One of the worst designs was by a professional in 2002 who persuaded me that my demographic of science-fiction geeks would love it.
Marketing & Advertising
Live Streaming Can Drive Affiliate Revenue

August 19, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Live streaming is a popular way to sell products in 2020, thanks, in part, to how the pandemic has impacted retailing. But within this broader trend, at least a few entrepreneurs are finding a new niche promoting products to social media friends and followers.
Email & Text Marketing
2020 Holiday Email Marketing Starts Early

August 18, 2020 • Carolyn Nye

With the fluid retail environment surrounding Covid-19, protocols and expectations change daily. According to Coresight Research, a consulting firm, 23 percent of U.S. consumers plan to start 2020 holiday shopping earlier than in prior years. Ecommerce merchants should plan holiday marketing now.
SEO Tools
SEO How-to, Part 12: Technical Tools

August 18, 2020 • Jill Kocher Brown

Implementing a search engine optimization strategy typically requires tools that can be dangerous when mishandled. Knowing those tools — when to use them and how — can make all the difference. This is the 12th and last post in my “SEO How-to” series.
Schools & Resources
13 Logo Galleries for Inspiration

August 17, 2020 • Sig Ueland

A logo is an opportunity to establish your brand and convey your company’s unique identity. A logo gallery can help via examples and inspiration. Here is a list of helpful logo galleries.
Payments
‘Payment Request API’ to Streamline Ecommerce Checkouts, Improve Security

August 17, 2020 • Armando Roggio

A standard application programming interface is helping to eliminate website checkout forms and improve the ecommerce experience on desktop, laptop, and mobile devices. Ecommerce businesses that adopt the approach early could gain a competitive advantage.
Platforms & Apps
Ecommerce Product Releases: August 16, 2020

August 16, 2020 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of product releases and updates for mid-August from companies that offer services to online merchants. There are updates on virtual conferences, international payments, ad tracking, carbon-neutral deliveries, returns automation, and seller financing.
Business
Banned by Google Ads, SpyGuy.com Ponders Alternative Channels

August 14, 2020 • Eric Bandholz

Ecommerce entrepreneurs understand the need for multiple revenue channels. Relying exclusively on, say, Facebook or Amazon or Google can lead to disruptions. And that's what happened to Allen Walton's company, which depends on Google Ads for most of its traffic and revenue.
Cross-border Selling
Ecommerce in France: Loyalty to Domestic Sellers

August 13, 2020 • Marcia Kaplan

France has the third-largest population in Europe with 65.3 million residents and the second-largest ecommerce market. French consumers are loyal to their national brands and often shun cross-border ecommerce. Roughly 60 percent of French shoppers make only domestic purchases.
Technical SEO
Google Lighthouse SEO Scores of Every Shopify Theme

August 12, 2020 • Hamlet Batista

This post addresses the SEO capabilities of every Shopify theme, using Lighthouse, across various page types — home, products, collections, blogs — for desktop and mobile.
Fraud Prevention
Share Customer Data Anonymously to Combat Fraud

August 11, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Ecommerce fraud prevention depends on good data. That data can come from payment card providers, credit bureaus, address listings, and, more recently, other merchants.
Payments
Is Apple Entering the Payment Acceptance Business?

August 11, 2020 • Mike Eckler

In July, Apple acquired Mobeewave, a relatively unknown payments-technology startup in Montreal, Canada for, reportedly, $100 million. For nine years, Mobeewave has been developing technology to convert conventional smartphones into payment-accepting devices without requiring additional hardware components.
Email & Text Marketing
13 Robust Newsletter Plugins for WordPress

August 10, 2020 • Sig Ueland

WordPress is a highly customizable content management system. With the right plugins, it can be a robust email marketing platform to create a newsletter and build a list of subscribers. Here is a list of newsletter plugins for WordPress.
Technical SEO
SEO How-to, Part 11: Mitigating Risk

August 10, 2020 • Jill Kocher Brown

The risk to organic search performance from altering a website usually comes from changes to content, linking structures, or underlying technology. With careful planning and execution, however, you can mitigate the risk from those changes and increase the likelihood of better rankings. This is the 11th installment in my "SEO How-to" series
Business
Holiday Selling without the Crowds

August 9, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Pandemic-induced social distancing, reduced hours of operation, and even continued lockdowns and closures could dramatically change Christmas shopping behaviors in 2020, requiring retailers to find new ways to serve holiday shoppers and generate sales.