Page 70 – Practical Ecommerce

Category

Keyword Research
SEO How-to, Part 5: Analyzing Keyword Data

June 19, 2020 • Jill Kocher Brown

Keyword research is a search engine optimization tactic to identify the words and phrases of consumers who are looking for the types of products and services that your company sells. In this post, I'll cover four steps: seeding keyword research, collecting the data, organizing it in my free keyword analysis template in Google Sheets, and analyzing it to understand intent and demand.
Marketing & Advertising
A 5-step Plan for Video Production and Distribution

June 18, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Video content marketing starts with goal setting, understanding your audience, identifying topics, and creating a schedule — often in the form of an editorial calendar. Once you've completed these first steps, it is time to produce, edit, and publish your videos.
Email & Text Marketing
6 Ways to Convert New Visitors to Email Subscribers

June 17, 2020 • Carolyn Nye

Many online merchants have experienced traffic surges due to the pandemic. Converting the new traffic to immediate purchases can be challenging. The next best option is enticing visitors to subscribe to your email communications. In this post, I'll offer tips for converting new visitors into email subscribers.
Analytics & Data
3 Data Visualization Tools — Basic to Robust

June 16, 2020 • Rebeca Pop

Charts and maps can increase the effectiveness and expressiveness of data. Microsoft Excel in 1985 was the first of many visualization tools to help communicate data. Many visualization tools have emerged since then. In this article, I will evaluate three of them.
Staffing
14 Marketplaces to Hire Freelance Designers, Developers, Writers, Marketers, More

June 15, 2020 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of marketplaces to hire freelance designers, developers, writers, finance professionals, social media marketers, and more. There are general marketplaces with huge pools of workers in hundreds of fields as well as specialized marketplaces focused on areas such as design, Amazon stores, and even expert consulting.
Content Marketing
A 4-step Plan for Video Marketing Success

June 15, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Videos are a potent way for ecommerce businesses to build lasting, profitable customer relationships. What follows are four steps — before you film — for successful video marketing.
Platforms & Apps
Ecommerce Product Releases: June 14, 2020

June 14, 2020 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of product releases and updates for mid-June from companies that offer services to online merchants. There are updates on visual search, lending, loyalty programs, payments, fraud protection, and gaming.
Business
Don’t Advertise to Existing Customers, Says Serial Ecommerce Entrepreneur

June 12, 2020 • Eric Bandholz

Taylor Holiday runs three successful ecommerce businesses, a thriving ecommerce-focused ad agency, and an educational membership community for advertising matters. I recently spoke with Holiday about his ventures, the state of ecommerce, and advertising dos and don'ts.
Analytics & Data
Using Internal Data for New Products, New Customers

June 11, 2020 • Anna Kayfitz

Ecommerce merchants miss opportunities by not utilizing their data. New products, new customers, upsells, cross-sells — internal data can provide insights on all of them. In this post, I'll address data sources to help merchants grow their business.
Cross-border Selling
Mexico’s Ecommerce Matures

June 11, 2020 • Marcia Kaplan

When I last addressed Mexican ecommerce, in 2014, citizens distrusted online purchasing, relied on simple payment methods, and did not buy from foreign websites. In 2020, much is unchanged. A large percentage of Mexicans still do not have bank accounts or credit cards.
Email & Text Marketing
Accelerate Ecommerce Marketing with the RFM Model

June 10, 2020 • Armando Roggio

The recency, frequency, and monetary model lets ecommerce marketers identify and market to specific consumer groups based on their transactional behavior. Ecommerce merchants have many reasons to segment customers and prospects.
Conversion
Top 5 Mobile Page Speed Fixes

June 9, 2020 • David Shreni

We've tackled in previous posts mobile page speed and Google’s efforts to drive mobile-first indexing. Having built and advised many mobile ecommerce sites, I’ve discovered hundreds of optimization tactics. In this post, I'll share the top five issues that impact mobile page speed in my experience. I’ll also offer tips to assess and quickly fix.
Business > Merchant Voice
Launching an ecommerce business: the first steps

June 9, 2020 • Richard Stubbings

My previous post described the launch of many ecommerce businesses in the U.K. due to the pandemic. It reminded me of when I started roughly 20 years ago. One of my first tasks was to think of a domain name.
Customer Service
10 Essentials for ‘Contact Us’ Forms (and 6 Mistakes to Avoid)

June 8, 2020 • Pamela Hazelton

"Contact Us" forms enable visitors to request information, ask questions, and submit concerns. The forms are important for customer acquisition and retention. Yet most contact forms fail usability tests. In "How to Get More Form Submissions, Even on Checkout Pages," I addressed key points, such as requesting only what you need and explaining why.
Schools & Resources
14 New Ecommerce Books for Summer 2020

June 8, 2020 • Sig Ueland

Here's a batch of new ecommerce books for summer and early fall reading. There are titles on startup funding, podcasting, branding, entrepreneurialism, international trade, the psychology of social networking, and the science of happiness.
Conversion
Store Closures, Slow Shipping Could Drive Retail Prices Lower

June 7, 2020 • Armando Roggio

The coronavirus pandemic could lead to much lower retail prices for some categories, as store closures and product returns caused by slow shipping lead to an inventory glut. The problem might be divided into two broad categories.
SEO Tools
SEO: Search Console Is an Untapped Source of Keyword Data

June 5, 2020 • Bill Sebald

Search Console now has more than enough data to return us to the glory days of natural search keyword data. But many businesses are not aware. I’ll explain the Search Console data in this article.
Google Ads
Guide to Google Ads Automated Bidding Options

June 4, 2020 • Matthew Umbro

Automated bids in Google Ads remove control from advertisers and rely on Google's algorithm for cost and performance. Google can set automated bids by the query, ad creative, apps, browser, language, operating system, and search partner. Plus, automated bidding utilizes first- and third-party data and other signals not available to advertisers directly.
Content Marketing
5 Content Marketing Ideas for July 2020

June 4, 2020 • Armando Roggio

The coronavirus pandemic will likely influence July 2020 activities. But that shouldn't stop you from publishing seasonally appropriate content marketing. Here are five content marketing ideas your business can try in July 2020.
Keyword Research
SEO How-to, Part 4: Keyword Research Concepts

June 3, 2020 • Jill Kocher Brown

Keyword research is the process of analyzing the search-engine queries of real people. That data — a window into the desires of searchers — is a gold mine for search engine optimization.
Payments
Covid-19, NFC, and the Future of Contactless Payments

June 2, 2020 • Mike Eckler

Once touted as the future, contactless payments never achieved mass popularity. Shoppers preferred the familiar swipe, dip, PIN-entry, and signature. The Covid-19 pandemic will likely change that as consumers are now more conscious of what they touch.
Design & Dev Tools
20 Free Web Design Tools from Spring 2020

June 2, 2020 • Sig Ueland

Free resources from the design community can add value to an ecommerce site. Here is a list of new web tools and design elements from spring 2020. There are designer and developer apps, coding resources, color tools, fonts, and more.
Analytics & Data
Understanding ‘Sessions’ in Google Analytics

June 1, 2020 • Armando Roggio

The word "session" in an English dictionary reads something like "a period of time devoted to a particular activity." It could be, for example, an individual working on a specific task or goal. Google Analytics uses the term "session" in a similar manner.
Platforms & Apps
Ecommerce Product Releases: June 1, 2020

June 1, 2020 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of product releases and updates for late-May from companies that offer services to online merchants. There are updates on social commerce, financial products for merchants, self-service ad platforms, selling on Amazon, and quick-launch commerce services.
Business
May 2020 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts

May 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 May 2020. Articles from early in the month are more likely to make the list than later ones.
Social Media
Writing Instagram Captions to Drive Sales

May 31, 2020 • Kaleena Stroud

Instagram is a hotspot for building an audience and selling products. Each image caption allows up to 2,200 characters, or roughly 300 words. In this article, I'll discuss posts and captions that drive sales on Instagram.
SEO
SEO How-to, Part 3: Strategy and Planning

May 29, 2020 • Jill Kocher Brown

The planning phase of search engine optimization involves identifying a strategy and roadmap to reach your goals. The process can be daunting. This post is the third installment in my “SEO How-to” series.
Cross-border Selling
Japan Is an Enticing Market for Cross-border Ecommerce

May 28, 2020 • Marcia Kaplan

Japan is the world’s third-largest ecommerce market following China and the United States. However, it is often overlooked by foreign online merchants because of an unusually low cross-border purchase rate and a somewhat insular approach to online shopping.
Business > Merchant Voice
New U.K. ecommerce businesses need guidance

May 28, 2020 • Richard Stubbings

It has been two months since we started the lockdown in the U.K. It seems longer. One thing has occurred during the lockdown that I did not predict but is obvious in hindsight: There has been an explosion of small internet businesses.
Photography & Video
Even in 2020, 360-degree Product Photos Boost Conversions

May 27, 2020 • Armando Roggio

A long-time ecommerce conversion tactic — 360-degree product photography — is making an appearance on major retail marketplaces, large B2B sites, online furniture stores, and automobile marketplaces, indicating, perhaps, that it still represents an opportunity to increase sales.