Page 81 – Practical Ecommerce

Category

Finance
Certified B Corporations Gain Ground in a Changing Business Environment

September 12, 2019 • Marcia Kaplan

Certified B Corporations are for-profit companies that have been evaluated by B Lab using rigorous social benefit criteria. The certification is becoming a competitive advantage as consumers, employees, and investors seek out companies that look beyond profits in how they conduct business.
Amazon & Marketplaces
Amazon Retail Arbitrage as a Closeout Strategy

September 12, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Retail arbitrage is a booming business. Some practitioners are making six-figure incomes buying low-priced or clearance items and reselling them on Amazon. Mimicking or encouraging the practice could help retail merchants manage closeouts.
Technical SEO
SEO: Catchall Redirects Are a Bad Practice

September 11, 2019 • Hamlet Batista

At first glance a catchall redirect page seems like a good solution. Instead of fixing thousands or tens of thousands of redirect errors, set up a simple catchall rule and send all users (and bots) to a single page. But it’s a bad idea.
Business > Merchant Voice
The evolution of my customer service team

September 10, 2019 • Peter Keller

I love the book “Delivering Happiness” by Tony Hsieh, founder of Zappos. It is mainly about the culture of customer service that Zappos became famous for. One of the throwaway anecdotes ...
Amazon & Marketplaces
Survey of Amazon Sellers Offers Insights for 2019 Holiday Season

September 10, 2019 • Phil Masiello

My firm surveyed roughly 1,700 sellers with annual revenue from Amazon of at least $5 million. We received 218 responses. I'll focus on the results in this article.
Google Ads
Google Ads Expands Keyword Variant Matching, Again

September 9, 2019 • Robert Brady

Over the past couple of years, Google Ads has expanded the use of close keyword variants from misspellings and plurals to implied words and paraphrases. Now, Google has again expanded the use of close variants.
Social Media
23 Twitter Feeds for Ecommerce Merchants to Follow

September 9, 2019 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of Twitter feeds for online merchants to follow. Most feeds are from individuals although a few are from application platforms. The feeds are separated into ecommerce, marketing, and design categories.
Content Marketing
5 Content Marketing Ideas for October 2019

September 8, 2019 • Armando Roggio

For some business, the challenge is not understanding how content marketing is supposed to work, but rather knowing what to write about or what to make a video about. Thus, this article offers five content marketing ideas for October 2019. You are welcome to use these ideas for your business.
Content Marketing
6 Types of Content That Help SEO (and Shoppers)

September 6, 2019 • Jill Kocher Brown

Modern search engine optimization relies on providing valuable content that improves a site’s customer experience. But the form it should take often stymies site owners. The six sites below prove that any ecommerce site can create valuable content that appeals both to shoppers and the search engines that send them.
Analytics & Data
How to Determine Survey Size for Meaningful Results

September 5, 2019 • Anna Kayfitz

When conducting surveys by email, polling on a website, or approaching people on the street, the main hurdle is knowing how many responses to collect. The following formula can predict the necessary sample size based on your population, such as users, email addresses, or potential customers.
Amazon & Marketplaces
Book Excerpt: ‘Three Secrets to Great, Sustainable Success on Amazon’

September 5, 2019 • Timothy Seward

As you consider how best to build your brand on Amazon, think broadly about your game plan for optimal success. Here are a few key strategies to help you focus your efforts on finding even greater success in commerce — whether you’re celebrating your fifth year in business or your 50th.
Analytics & Data
How to Audit Integration of Google Analytics, Ads

September 4, 2019 • Morgan Jones

Google Ads is an important platform for online merchants. Google Analytics is another. Combining the two provides rich, actionable data to grow traffic and sales — assuming that tracking is set up correctly. In this post, I'll provide an audit process to confirm proper integration.
Amazon & Marketplaces
How to Write Amazon Product Titles That Drive Clicks

September 3, 2019 • Armando Roggio

On Amazon's marketplace, a product's title can be the difference between getting a click or being ignored. Next to a compelling product photo, a title is likely the most important aspect of the description. Amazon emphasized this when it enacted new product title requirements in June 2019.
Schools & Resources
20 Chrome Extensions for Web Design

September 3, 2019 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of Chrome extensions for design. There are tools to find the right font, develop color palettes, discover and create inspirational images, customize graphics, measure elements, and analyze your pages as well as your competitors'.
Google Ads
Understanding Google Ads’ New Conversion Action Sets

September 2, 2019 • Matthew Umbro

Google Ads' advertisers use conversion tracking for keywords and ad copy. A "conversion" could be a sale or a visitor filling out the contact-us form. Conversion action sets allow advertisers to establish conversion priorities and optimize accordingly.
Platforms & Apps
Ecommerce Product Releases: September 1, 2019

September 1, 2019 • 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 last-mile delivery, holiday shipping, payment security, customer scoring, seller protection, and charitable donations from merchants.
Business
August 2019 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts

August 31, 2019 • PEC Staff

Since 2005 we've published articles, seminars, and podcasts to help ecommerce merchants improve their business. What follows are the 10 most popular articles (based on page views) that we published in August.
Technical SEO
SEO: HTML, XML Sitemaps Explained

August 30, 2019 • Jill Kocher Brown

There are two types of sitemaps: HTML and XML. HTML sitemaps guide visitors, mostly. XML sitemaps guide search engine bots, to ensure they find a site’s URLs to index. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of each will help with your search engine optimization.
Business
3 Predictions for the 2019 Holiday Shopping Season

August 29, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Many trends will emerge from the 2019 Christmas shopping season, but I believe three will be prominent. First, click-and-collect may encourage shoppers to wait for last-minute deals and convenience. Second, mobile commerce will come into its own. And third, Amazon will account for nearly half of all online holiday sales in 2019.
Inventory
Recommerce Surges as Retailers, Brands Get in the Game

August 28, 2019 • Marcia Kaplan

Recommerce, the process of selling used products or excess inventory to companies or consumers, is growing 20-times faster than the broader retail market and five-times faster than off-price retailers. Leading recommerce merchants include thredUP, The RealReal, and Poshmark.
Business > Merchant Voice
Quality, low-volume goods are a growth market

August 27, 2019 • Richard Stubbings

There is a growing concern for the environment. Conserving resources is becoming more popular. Have you considered how your business can help the environment and make money whilst doing it?
Amazon & Marketplaces
Amazon Ads Boost Marketplace Search Rankings

August 27, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Amazon Ads will not only help spur marketplace sales but could start a virtuous cycle of revenue growth. Amazon favors high-converting products on its search result pages. One of the ways to improve a product's conversions and sales is to advertise it on the platform.
Conversion
17 Ideas to Reinvent Your Ecommerce Business

August 26, 2019 • Dale Traxler

When was the last time you did something innovative with your online store? Innovation involves taking a risk. In this post, I'll offer ideas that have the potential to reinvent your business. Most involve investing in design, development, tools, or support services.
Technical SEO
6-step SEO Indexation Audit for Ecommerce

August 25, 2019 • Jill Kocher Brown

Search engines need to index your site before it can rank. But it's not always obvious if a search index contains the correct pages. Content that should be indexed may not be. And content that should not be indexed often is. Use the following six steps to ensure that the right pages are indexed across your ecommerce site.
Marketing & Advertising
How to Launch Facebook Ads from Your Business Page

August 23, 2019 • Armando Roggio

There are many good reasons to use Facebook ads, not the least of which is its continued focus on the advertising model. A company can create an effective advertising campaign directly from its Facebook business page. I'll describe the process in this post.
Product Pages
Non-standard Product Images Can Spur Sales

August 22, 2019 • Pamela Hazelton

Quality product photos are crucial to selling online. Since they cannot physically touch an item, shoppers need to see all the core details. To maximize sales of a product, though, you need multiple types of images — beyond studio shots. Here are three types of non-standard photos that encourage sales.
Email & Text Marketing
Overlooked Email Tools to Streamline Production, Drive Conversions

August 21, 2019 • Carolyn Nye

Email service providers are increasingly sophisticated. Every provider serves the same basic need — sending emails — but often in different ways. The following nine tools are common in modern ESP platforms but are frequently overlooked or underused by ecommerce merchants.
SEO
Use ‘Barnacle SEO’ to Drive Traffic without Ranking

August 21, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Using so-called "barnacle SEO" tactics, an ecommerce business may be able to put its products and its brand in front of many potential customers without ranking its website for a target phrase. The idea is to place content on large established domains to win one or more spots on the search engine results page for your company's most competitive keyword phrases.
Cross-border Selling
Blockchain Is Transforming the Retail Supply Chain

August 20, 2019 • Brandon Bidlack

Of all the areas in which blockchain applies to commerce, supply chain applications are the furthest along in development and usage. This stems primarily from the database-like features of blockchain combined with traceability and security benefits, which are a natural fit for reducing costs as well as ensuring that a company fulfills its brand promise for product sourcing or quality.
Social Media
15 Buzz-worthy Giveaway Contests on Social Media

August 19, 2019 • Sig Ueland

A giveaway contest is an enduring promotional tool. A contest attracts and rewards fans, and the item is usually the prize. Here is a list of notable contest examples on social media.