Page 74 – Practical Ecommerce

Category

Conversion
U-shaped Marketing Attribution for Ecommerce

March 13, 2020 • Armando Roggio

The so-called "u-shaped" marketing attribution model emphasizes a shopper's first and last marketing interactions before a conversion. The model can help identify the marketing tactics that are closing sales.
Shipping & Fulfillment
5 On-demand Warehousing, Fulfillment Providers

March 12, 2020 • Marcia Kaplan

On-demand warehousing and fulfillment providers act as middlemen — a kind of Airbnb for logistics. Merchants search on a provider's platform for available warehouse space in the location they want. It's one way for ecommerce sellers to achieve faster delivery.
Email & Text Marketing
The Keys to Successful Email Automation

March 11, 2020 • Anna Kayfitz

Success in email marketing for ecommerce companies depends on a few prerequisites. A marketing automation tool is essential. Many email service providers offer automation features, as do enterprise automation platforms.
SEO
Should Internal Search Results Pages Be Indexed?

March 10, 2020 • Armando Roggio

No, your website's own search results pages should not be indexed by Google and other search engines in most cases. Long-standing search-engine-optimization wisdom says the results pages from your site-search should block search engine bots and not be included in a search engine's index of pages.
Staffing > Merchant Voice
What I look for in an employee

March 9, 2020 • Richard Stubbings

What should you look for in an ecommerce employee? In this post, I’ll describe my hiring process. To start, I list job duties. Then I list skill requirements in two columns:
Amazon & Marketplaces
3 SEO Lessons from Amazon for Ecommerce Product Pages

March 8, 2020 • Jill Kocher Brown

Product detail pages on Amazon rank for roughly 34 million keywords in Google in the U.S. In this post, I'll address three tips for optimizing the product pages on your own ecommerce site using lessons from Amazon.
Design & Development
Brave, a Privacy-focused Web Browser, Attracts Techies

March 6, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Brave is a niche web browser popular with tech enthusiasts for its privacy, ad blocking, and unique crypto-currency-based advertising and rewards system.
Product Pages
Simple Ways to Offer Customized Products

March 5, 2020 • Pamela Hazelton

Personalized and customized products can help smaller ecommerce businesses stay ahead. Personalization can be simple as packaging a group of items as custom “kit” or providing engraved plates or quality vinyl decals.
Business
Ecommerce Owners on Morning Routines, Work-life Balance

March 5, 2020 • Eric Bandholz

Last month I spoke with Ronnie Teja, an innovative entrepreneur who runs multiple ecommerce sites. The published interview focused on how he launched the business. We also discussed work-life balance. What follows is that portion of our discussion.
Content Marketing
5 Content Marketing Ideas for April 2020

March 4, 2020 • Armando Roggio

The goal of content marketing is to attract and engage customers for your business. It can also build organic search traffic. Achieving these ends, however, takes compelling topics. Here are five content marketing ideas your business can try.
Google Ads
Assessing All Google Ad Extensions for 2020 (and a Couple from Microsoft)

March 3, 2020 • Matthew Umbro

Extensions complement text ads on search engines by providing helpful info for consumers and occupying more space in search results. Nonetheless, advertisers often underutilize extensions, in my experience. In this post, I’ll explain all Google ad extensions and a couple that are Microsoft-only.
Social Media
20 New Social Media Tools for Merchants

March 2, 2020 • Sig Ueland

Take advantage of new and updated social media tools to enhance your ecommerce business. Here is a list of recent launches from social media platforms. There are tools for content management, video production, 3D images, content monetization, micro-loan financing, networking your business, and more.
Platforms & Apps
Ecommerce Product Releases: March 2, 2020

March 2, 2020 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of product releases and updates for late February from companies that offer services to online merchants. There are updates on digital marketing tools, artificial intelligence, video creation, cybersecurity, shipping, and customer service and returns.
Technical SEO
SEO: Why Your Faceted Navigation Pages Aren’t Ranking

March 1, 2020 • Jill Kocher Brown

The filters and facets utilized by ecommerce sites allow shoppers to quickly narrow a product set by color, style, or other attributes. It's called faceted navigation. It's ideal for targeting keywords with midsized demand. And it can seriously boost organic search traffic.
Staffing
What to Do When an Employee Leaves

February 28, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Employees quit. It is a reality of every business. Large companies with dedicated human resource teams have a process or checklist they follow when someone decides to leave. But small and mid-sized firms may not have a plan in place.
Business
February 2020 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts

February 28, 2020 • PEC Staff

Since 2005 we’ve published articles, podcasts, and webinars to empower ecommerce merchants. What follows are the 10 most popular articles that we published in February 2020. Articles from early in ...
Inventory
The Keys to Lower Inventory Costs

February 27, 2020 • Phil Masiello

Managing inventory is among the most critical tasks of an ecommerce company. Poorly managed, inventory costs can escalate, and profits erode. In this post, I'll review five tactics of high-performing, multichannel sellers that greatly lower inventory costs while streamlining operations.
Business
Reset in the Direct-to-consumer Market

February 27, 2020 • Marcia Kaplan

Direct-to-consumer brands were stars from 2018 through mid-2019. The storyline was that they were flawlessly executing while brick-and-mortar retailers were flailing. Now weaknesses in the DTC arena are emerging.
Analytics & Data
6 Ways Geography Impacts Ecommerce Conversions

February 26, 2020 • Anna Kayfitz

Merchants are typically aware of the states or countries where their customers reside. Many variables can impact sales or performance by region. In this post, I'll address six of them.
Content Marketing
Tips on Writing from 4,700 Articles, 24 Years of Journalism

February 25, 2020 • Armando Roggio

While much could be said about the writing process, in this post I'll share five tips from my own experience as a writer. These tips I've have developed from more than 24 years of journalism and more than 4,700 published, bylined articles. Perhaps at least one of these tips will help you.
Technical SEO
Analyze Competitors’ Breadcrumbs for Categories, Products

February 25, 2020 • Hamlet Batista

Knowing the breadcrumb navigation of your ecommerce competitors can be helpful. It could identify missing categories on your own site, navigation ideas, and even competitors' best-selling products.
Amazon & Marketplaces
13 Marketplaces for Handmade Goods

February 24, 2020 • Sig Ueland

Merchants who sell handmade goods can list their products on specialized marketplaces. There, merchants can find potential customers along with a community of like-minded creators and sellers. Here is a list of marketplaces for handmade goods.
Technical SEO
Google Downgrades Nofollow Directive. Now What?

February 24, 2020 • Jill Kocher Brown

On March 1, Google will no longer consider nofollow attributes as commands. Instead, they will be hints, much like canonical tags. Until now, nofollow attributes have been a protective barrier between your site's authority and the potentially questionable sites it links to.
Business
Canada-based Entrepreneur Scales to 15 Websites, 30 Remote Employees

February 23, 2020 • Eric Bandholz

Ronnie Teja immigrated to Vancouver, Canada in 2008. He was 22. Fast-forward to 2020, and he owns and operates a thriving ecommerce company that sells watches and related accessories. I recently spoke with him about launching his company, acquiring sites, and the challenges of managing it remotely.
Checkout Tactics
10 Useful Elements for a Post-purchase Thank-you Page (and 3 to Avoid)

February 21, 2020 • Pamela Hazelton

One of the most underutilized features of online stores is the post-purchase thank-you page. A thank-you page often contains only order details. That’s a mistake. Here are 10 useful elements to include on a thank-you page, and three to avoid.
Payments
Why American Express Pushes for Higher Merchant Acceptance

February 21, 2020 • Mike Eckler

American Express announced last month that the number of merchants accepting its card is roughly the same as Visa and Mastercard. In this post, I'll explain how American Express’s business model differs from Visa and Mastercard’s. I’ll also examine the programs that enabled Amex to achieved parity.
On-page SEO
Scalable SEO Strategies to Boost Category Pages

February 20, 2020 • Jill Kocher Brown

Large-scale improvements in organic search performance require large-scale changes. Ecommerce merchants tend to optimize product detail pages. Many merchants overlook category pages, which can provide more organic-search opportunities.
Shipping & Fulfillment
First-party Logistics Could Transform Ecommerce

February 19, 2020 • Armando Roggio

In 2020, Amazon will deliver roughly 3.5 billion packages in the United States — more than FedEx. That could signal a trend toward first-party logistics, price pressure, and fragmentation in the package delivery industry.
Conversion
Success in Mobile Commerce Requires a Mobile-specific Strategy

February 18, 2020 • David Shreni

Ecommerce sites typically have goals for overall revenue and growth. However, it is essential to create mobile-specific goals, too. Roughly half of ecommerce traffic now comes from mobile devices, according to Google. Thus specific metrics for mobile — i.e., conversions, bounce rates — are critical.
Business
Managing Custom Prices in BigCommerce

February 18, 2020 • Armando Roggio

Not every customer pays the same price. Online merchants sometimes offer different prices to different sorts of customers. Businesses on BigCommerce's Enterprise plan can assign prices to customer groups, such as wholesalers or retailers.