Page 87 – Practical Ecommerce

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Photography & Video
How to Make Images Load Faster

April 16, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Images impact the load time of a website. The faster the site, the better the user experience, leading to conversions and profits. In this piece, I'll offer suggestions for optimizing images. The goal is to create an attractive experience without bogging down performance.
Photography & Video
25 Websites to Share, Manage Video

April 15, 2019 • Sig Ueland

Creating a video can promote products and services, but only if it attracts viewers. Here is a list of websites and platforms for managing and sharing video. There are hosting services, social networks, entertainment sites, news platforms, archives, and more. Many are free.
Product Pages
7 Reasons Your Mobile Site Isn’t Converting So Well

April 15, 2019 • Pamela Hazelton

Most online stores are seeing more traffic from smartphones. But desktops and tablets still generate higher conversion rates. Here are seven reasons why.
Product Pages
SEO: Product Descriptions Are a Blind Spot for Ecommerce Merchants

April 14, 2019 • Jill Kocher Brown

Why does the ecommerce community have such a blind spot when it comes to unique product descriptions? Syndicated descriptions produce duplicate content. Why is duplicate product copy accepted so blindly? The answer depends on whether you’re the syndicator or the site using the syndicated content.
Business
Ecommerce Briefs: Amazon Shipping, Kohl’s Collaboration, Teen Shopping

April 12, 2019 • Marcia Kaplan

In “Ecommerce Briefs,” I address news and developments that impact online merchants. In this installment, I’ll report on Amazon's expansion into shipping and logistics; the success of the returns partnership between Amazon and Kohl's; and where teenagers like to shop.
Design & Development
The Case for Optimizing Image Performance

April 12, 2019 • Armando Roggio

For ecommerce, pictures can showcase products, inspire customers, and boost conversion rates. For web performance, however, pictures can hurt page load times and, thereby, the user experience. In March 2019, the ...
Google Ads
Google Ads Keyword Planner Gets an Upgrade

April 11, 2019 • Robert Brady

The other day I went to the Keyword Planner in Google Ads. I was greeted by a lightbox message that stated, “A Better Keyword Planner.” The box said six "key features" were improved. Here's my take on the changes.
B2B
Common B2B Mistakes, Part 2: User Management, Customer Service

April 10, 2019 • Gagan Mehra

This post is the second in a series in which I address common mistakes of B2B ecommerce merchants. The first post addressed B2B mistakes in catalog management and pricing. For this installment, I’ll review mistakes related to user management and customer service.
Platforms & Apps
7 Reasons to Consider a Headless CMS

April 9, 2019 • Armando Roggio

There are many reasons for a business to consider a headless content management system. Among them are a need to use content in multiple channels, a desire for improved customization, and relief from a cluttered, conventional platform.
Analytics & Data
8 Ways to Improve Marketing Automation for Ecommerce

April 8, 2019 • Anna Kayfitz

Marketing automation can do more with email than send mass deployments and track opens and clicks. Marketing automation can integrate email with your customer management platform to create relevant campaigns. In this post, I'll review eight ways to accelerate an ecommerce marketing automation program.
Platforms & Apps
18 Helpful Plugins for WordPress Multisite Networks

April 8, 2019 • Sig Ueland

WordPress lets you create and manage multiple websites from a single installation by using the multisite feature. Here is a list of helpful plugins for multisite networks on WordPress. There are plugins to control access, clone websites, enhance performance, back up your network, and more.
Marketing & Advertising
How to Measure Customer Acquisition Cost

April 7, 2019 • Armando Roggio

How does an ecommerce company decide which marketing tactics work the best? Customer acquisition cost helps to answer this question. CAC is a key performance indicator for ecommerce marketing. It estimates how much to invest to attract one new customer.
SEO Tools
SEO: 9 Content Optimization Tools

April 5, 2019 • Jill Kocher Brown

Contextual relevance in search engine optimization refers to how the content on a website aligns with searchers' words and phrases. These nine content optimization tools will take you from keyword research to written word to optimized copy.
Analytics & Data
Using Alerts in Google Analytics for Slow Site Speeds

April 4, 2019 • Morgan Jones

I’ve addressed site speed reports in Google Analytics. Site speed is critical for conversions and, increasingly, for search engine rankings. In this post, I’ll explain how to set up Custom Alerts in ...
Business > Merchant Voice
Are we surfing hidden tailwinds?

April 4, 2019 • Peter Keller

From 2001 until 2008, times were good. I thought we were just smarter than everyone. But then 2008 rolled around. What happened? We were surfing three major tailwinds that we took for granted.
Conversion
4 Online Merchandising Hacks to Increase Profits

April 3, 2019 • Charles Nicholls

Retailers seek to avoid markdowns and sell out of the season at full margin, but it isn’t easy to predict how much inventory to acquire. In this post, I'll address four online merchandising tactics that balance consumer demand with inventory levels, to maximize profits.
Platforms & Apps
Ecommerce Product Releases: April 3, 2019

April 3, 2019 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of product releases and updates for late March from companies that offer services to online merchants. There are updates on social commerce, furniture shipping, chargeback management, Amazon summits, and Facebook ad transparency.
Content Marketing
5 Content Marketing Ideas for May 2019

April 2, 2019 • Armando Roggio

From science fiction to education to research, there are plenty of ways to connect with consumers through content marketing in May 2019. What follows are five content ideas for your business to try in May 2019.
Platforms & Apps
18 Podcasting Tools and Resources

April 1, 2019 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of tools to help you produce your podcast. There are both online and offline tools to record, edit, and mix the audio. There are hosting platforms and tools to distribute and track your episodes.
Google Ads > Merchant Voice
How Google Shopping has affected my ecommerce site

April 1, 2019 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

It’s been more than six months since I started advertising on Google Shopping. It has greatly improved my revenue, as well as traffic to my site. In this post, I'll recap the metrics.
Business
March 2019 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts

March 31, 2019 • PEC Staff

Our mission since 2005 is to publish independent articles, podcasts, and seminars that help ecommerce merchants. What follows are the most popular articles that we published in March 2019, recognizing ...
Content Marketing
Without Compelling Content, Ecommerce Success Is Nearly Impossible

March 31, 2019 • Dale Traxler

As I work with clients to improve conversion rates, average order values, and market share, content strategy becomes critical. Without compelling content, it’s nearly impossible to be successful in ecommerce. In this post, I'll describe the benefits (and challenges) of compelling content.
SEO Tools
SEO: Using Lighthouse to Improve Site Speed

March 29, 2019 • Jill Kocher Brown

Site speed is tricky for search engine optimization practitioners. It’s a ranking signal for Google and a key factor in a customer's experience. But few SEO pros have the development chops to improve speed. One option is to use Google's Lighthouse, a site auditing tool.
Marketing & Advertising
4 Marketing Tactics to Get the Next Ecommerce Sale

March 29, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Online retailers have the opportunity to transform every new visitor into a long-term, loyal customer who makes dozens or even hundreds of purchases over several years. What follows are four inexpensive marketing ideas to help your ecommerce company make the next sale and earn more profit from existing customers.
Finance
Pinterest Files for an IPO; Focuses on Shopping

March 28, 2019 • Marcia Kaplan

In a year that looks promising for tech IPOs, Pinterest has filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange using the ticker "PINS." The company hopes to raise at least $100 million, in April.
Technical SEO
Measuring Traffic from Google Shopping’s New Organic Listings

March 27, 2019 • Hamlet Batista

In my previous article, I explained how Google Shopping is expanding to include free organic search listings. The next step is to explore an easy way to measure the performance of organic traffic coming from Shopping feeds.
Customer Retention
Analyzing the Impact of Customer Retention on Profits

March 26, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Customer retention is a good indicator of an ecommerce business’s potential for long-term growth and success. With this in mind, ecommerce owners and managers should consider making customer retention a ...
Business
Building an Ecommerce Business, Part 13: Raising Money

March 25, 2019 • Eric Bandholz

Launching an ecommerce business takes perseverance, passion, and, typically, money. Raising that money can be time-consuming and frustrating. I recently spoke with Joshua Bingaman and Brad Day of Helm Boots, a manufacturer and seller of handcrafted leather boots. We discussed the process of evolving from a start-up, bootstrapped company to one that needs investors, money, and structure.
Schools & Resources
14 New Ecommerce Books for Spring 2019

March 25, 2019 • Sig Ueland

Spring is finally here with a new batch of ecommerce books. There are titles on advertising on Amazon, omnichannel strategy, blockchain, user experience, artificial intelligence, social media marketing, podcasting, and drop shipping.
Technical SEO
SEO: Lessons from Google’s ‘rel=prev/next’ Pagination Identifier

March 24, 2019 • Jill Kocher Brown

Search engine optimization professionals were caught off guard this week by Google’s admission that it hasn’t used its pagination identifier in “a number of years.” The admission reinforces the requirement ...