Page 68 – Practical Ecommerce

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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.
Business
2PM Founder: Successful Entrepreneurs Are Polymaths

August 7, 2020 • Eric Bandholz

Having founded and sold multiple ecommerce companies, Web Smith believes successful entrepreneurs must be polymaths to understand opportunities.
Product Pages
Use Purchasing Trends to Merchandise Products

August 6, 2020 • Pamela Hazelton

You are not alone if confused about the products people are apt to buy today. Even consumers aren't always sure. Most consumers have opted to stay closer to home during a time when family vacations and festivals would have been the norm. How we present information on the home page, landing pages, and across social media impacts sales.
Content Marketing
5 Content Marketing Ideas for September 2020

August 6, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Content marketing is the act of creating, publishing, and promoting articles, podcasts, and videos with the intent of attracting, engaging, and retaining customers. Here are five content marketing ideas your business can try in September 2020.
Google Ads
‘Buy On Google’ Opens to All Merchants

August 5, 2020 • Matthew Umbro

Google Shopping has made its second significant change in the last few months. The first change was implementing free Google Shopping listings. The second is opening the “Buy on Google” program for all merchants, commission-free.
Business > Merchant Voice
Amid Covid-19, it’s time to build

August 4, 2020 • Peter Keller

"It's Time to Build" is a popular blog post by Marc Andreessen, the Internet pioneer and investor. He wrote it in April 2020 at the onset of the worldwide pandemic. Ecommerce businesses are lucky. Amid the global pandemic, our industry is thriving and pushing forward.
Technical SEO
SEO How-to, Part 10: Redesigns, Migrations, URL Changes

August 4, 2020 • Jill Kocher Brown

Changes in content, linking, and URL structure can dramatically impact organic search performance. Thus it's critical to understand the search engine risks and rewards from a new design before you start developing it. This is the 10th installment in my "SEO How-to" series.
Platforms & Apps
13 Platforms for Shoppable Video

August 3, 2020 • Sig Ueland

Video is increasingly impacting ecommerce. Consumers use it for purchase decisions. Influencers live-stream product endorsements. And brands deploy video for engagement and product offerings. Here is a list of platforms for shoppable video.
Analytics & Data
Using Google Tag Manager to Track Visitor Interactions

August 3, 2020 • Morgan Jones

Online merchants need data to drive decisions. An example is tracking visitor activity. In this post, I'll review how to set up the reporting of common site interactions using Google Tag Manager.
Platforms & Apps
Ecommerce Product Releases: August 2, 2020

August 2, 2020 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of product releases and updates for late July from companies that offer services to online merchants. There are updates on live commerce, installment payments, cross-border sales, packaging, targeting, and omnichannel services.
Local Business
The First Steps in Adding Ecommerce to a Brick-and-mortar Store

August 2, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Brick-and-mortar retail businesses are turning toward ecommerce to generate revenue — online and click-and-collect. As they make this digital transformation, those merchants will likely have questions about ecommerce platforms, themes, and design. While all of these are important, a company's focus should be on products and marketing first, in my experience.
Email & Text Marketing
1 Million Email Subscribers ‘Fricking Hard,’ Says TheHustle.co Founder

July 31, 2020 • Eric Bandholz

I asked Sam Parr, the founder of The Hustle, an email newsletter with curated business and technology news, how he has grown his list to over 1 million subscribers. "It's fricking hard," he told me.
Business
July 2020 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts

July 31, 2020 • PEC Staff

Our mission since 2005 is to publish content to help ecommerce merchants. What follows are the 10 most popular articles that we published in July 2020. Articles from early in ...
Amazon & Marketplaces
Amazon, with Demand Surging, Transitions FBA

July 30, 2020 • Marcia Kaplan

Amazon is experiencing a dilemma that other ecommerce companies wish they had: a demand that exceeds supply chain infrastructure. In a note in mid-July, Amazon told sellers using Fulfillment by ...
Content Marketing
Inject New Life into Old Content

July 30, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Content marketing is a long game. A business must publish regularly over an extended period. This inevitably means that some of the content created will get old or outdated. Fortunately, a marketer can inject new life into old content, making it valuable again.
Social Media
8 Ways to Drive Product Sales on Instagram

July 29, 2020 • Kaleena Stroud

More than 130 million users tap on an Instagram shopping post at least monthly. That activity, combined with new shopping features, confirms that Instagram is quickly turning into one of the largest mobile shopping platforms. In this post, I'll review the top avenues for getting your products in front of an Instagram audience.
Business > Merchant Voice
Lessons from 20 years of ecommerce

July 28, 2020 • Richard Stubbings

My first ecommerce site was a supplement to my brick-and-mortar shop in 2000. There was little online competition. Amazon sold only books. Most of my competitors were small independents like me, and it was easy to stand above the crowd. I advertised the site on shopping bags, on leaflets at conventions, and in an occasional magazine. This post is the second in a series on starting and growing an ecommerce business.
Platforms & Apps
23 Useful, Free Plugins for WooCommerce

July 28, 2020 • Sig Ueland

The WooCommerce plugin launched in 2011, enabling users to turn their WordPress sites into ecommerce storefronts. Today, approximately one-fourth of all online stores use WooCommerce, which is now owned by Automattic, parent of WordPress. Here is a list of useful plugins to enhance your WooCommerce store.
Technical SEO
SEO How-to, Part 9: Diagnosing Crawler Issues

July 27, 2020 • Jill Kocher Brown

Search engines must crawl and index your site before it can rank in organic search. Thus optimizing your content is pointless if search engines cannot access it. This is the ninth installment in my “SEO How-to” series.
Content Marketing
The Hero-Hub-Help Content Marketing Strategy

July 27, 2020 • Armando Roggio

A content marketing strategy should identify what to publish and when to publish it. When a content marketing goal includes growing an engaged audience, YouTube's venerable hero-hub-help framework has much to offer.
Google Ads
Understanding ‘Explanations’ in Google Ads

July 26, 2020 • Robert Brady

You may have noticed blue, hyperlinked performance stats recently in your Google Ads interface. This is a new feature called "explanations." In this post, I’ll explain explanations and how they can improve results.
Business
‘Build Businesses for the Cash Flow,’ Says Repeat Entrepreneur

July 24, 2020 • Eric Bandholz

Entrepreneurs tend to become emotionally entwined with their businesses. "It's my baby," an entrepreneur might say when describing his company. But not Rohan Gilkes. "There's no emotion," he told me. "I have no babies. I build businesses for the cash flow."
Payments
Do Contactless Payments Impact Vulnerable Consumers?

July 23, 2020 • Mike Eckler

Many brick-and-mortar merchants have implemented tap-to-pay systems during the pandemic. Customers and employees, fearing the spread of the coronavirus, are wary of handling cash and coins. But refusing cash payments has societal implications as it assumes all consumers have access to a smartphone or credit card.
Schools & Resources
Reading List: Charlie Casey of LoyaltyLion

July 23, 2020 • PEC Staff

"Reading List" is an occasional series where we ask ecommerce professionals to name some of their favorite books and blogs and tell us why. For this installment, we corresponded with Charlie Casey. He is CEO and co-founder of LoyaltyLion, a data-driven loyalty and engagement platform.
Platforms & Apps
Evolving Tech Stack Enables High Performance Ecommerce

July 22, 2020 • Armando Roggio

The technologies powering the web and mobile applications never stop evolving. Each new phase creates opportunities for businesses. The latest iteration is the expansion of so-called edge network capabilities, which help online merchants improve performance and user experience. Both are fundamental to Google's new "web vitals" initiative.
Customer Retention
It’s the Perfect Time to Launch a Loyalty Program

July 21, 2020 • Pamela Hazelton

The pandemic is prompting consumers to stay at home and buy online. It's a perfect opportunity for ecommerce companies to introduce a well-defined loyalty program. Also called rewards or points, loyalty programs help the business and its customers in three key ways.
Technical SEO
SEO How-to, Part 8: Architecture and Internal Linking

July 20, 2020 • Jill Kocher Brown

The structure of your ecommerce site — categories, subcategories, attributes — heavily impacts search engine optimization. This is the eighth installment in my “SEO How-to” series.
Marketing & Advertising
Live Streaming Connects with Pandemic-driven Consumers

July 19, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Small and mid-sized ecommerce businesses can use live streaming to sell like QVC and HSN, introducing and demonstrating products as well as providing helpful content. And deploying live streaming now can take advantage of consumers' new, pandemic-driven buying habits.
Business
Alpha Male Succeeds with Haircare, Skincare, Sunglasses

July 17, 2020 • Eric Bandholz

Aaron Marino says he hates to read. He's bad at grammar and writing, he claims. But he's really good at making videos. "I had a fitness center that didn't work out," he told me. "I started making YouTube videos in 2008 with no idea that I could ever make a buck on that platform."
Email & Text Marketing
4 High-converting Email Segments for Ecommerce

July 16, 2020 • Carolyn Nye

Ecommerce has experienced incredible changes in the past few months. Consumers who had not embraced online retail are now forced to adopt it. Email segmentation can marketers reach these new buyers by improving relevancy. In this post, I'll describe the most effective ways to segment an email list for ecommerce.