Page 89 – Practical Ecommerce

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Analytics & Data
Google Analytics: Tracking Sales When Multiple Sites Use a Single Checkout

February 26, 2019 • Morgan Jones

Larger ecommerce companies sometimes create multiple branded websites that feed into a single checkout. For those companies, tracking which site generated the business — revenue — can be tricky. In this post, I will provide a method for reporting the “source of business” metrics in Google Analytics.
Technical SEO
Real-time SEO: Create a Google Product Feed from an XML Sitemap

February 26, 2019 • Hamlet Batista

It is now possible to update product listings in organic search results in real time via a product feed. In this article, I’ll explain how to create a feed from an XML sitemap.
Platforms & Apps
18 Slack Apps and Bots for Team Collaboration

February 25, 2019 • Sig Ueland

Slack is a collaboration hub for teams, providing a single place for messaging, tools, and files. For small businesses, Slack can be a helpful platform to create and develop. Here is a list of integrated apps and bots from Slack and third-party vendors to enhance team productivity on Slack.
Amazon & Marketplaces
Do Amazon’s New ‘Dynamic Bid’ Ads Improve Sales?

February 24, 2019 • Phil Masiello

Last month Amazon announced improvements to its Sponsored Product ads with the addition of dynamic bids and the option to adjust bids by placement. My firm has been testing these additions. Are they driving sales and profits or do they simply increase ad spend?
Staffing
9 Things to Do When Your SEO Pro Quits

February 22, 2019 • Jill Kocher Brown

An ecommerce company's search-engine-optimization pro will eventually leave. Here’s what to do next. First, ask her why. Make it clear that you want her feedback to make the program stronger.
Product Pages
3 Ways to Overcome Shoppers’ Desire to Touch Products

February 22, 2019 • Pamela Hazelton

Ecommerce stores are convenient and offer much to consumers. But online shopping has one big disadvantage: Buyers cannot touch the products. In this post, I will discuss three ways for ecommerce businesses to overcome a potential buyer’s desire to physically handle a product before buying online.
Technical SEO
How Query Intent Impacts Ecommerce SEO

February 21, 2019 • Bill Sebald

Google attempts to understand the intent of a searcher's query. The company recognizes the burden of providing the best results, even if the query is vague. For example, if someone types in “jaguar,” Google has to figure out what that searcher wants.
Business
Building an Ecommerce Business, Part 12: Acquiring Companies

February 20, 2019 • Eric Bandholz

Acquiring ecommerce businesses requires skill and diligence. Financing is a major consideration, as is learning from the previous owner and hiring new executives, if necessary. This is episode 12 in my series on building an ecommerce business from the ground up.
Marketing & Advertising
7 Old-school Selling Tips for Ecommerce

February 20, 2019 • Dale Traxler

Many online retailers don’t focus on selling. An online store is a digital sales agent. It must interpret a buyer’s needs, pitch relevant products, and close the deal — much ...
Photography & Video
14 Online Video Editors for Ecommerce

February 19, 2019 • Sig Ueland

If you’re interested in producing video to promote your products or brand, consider using an online video editor. There are a variety of easy-to-use tools available for free or very little cost, with many of the bells and whistles of high-priced video editing software.
Content Marketing
5 Content Marketing Ideas for March 2019

February 19, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Content marketing is meant to help your business connect with potential customers, building long-term relationships. The goal is to attract, engage, and retain those prospects with content that your business creates or curates, publishes, and distributes. In this post, I will discuss five content marketing ideas your business could try in March 2019.
Email & Text Marketing
How to Make Triggered Emails More Effective

February 18, 2019 • Carolyn Nye

Triggered emails are automated messages in response to the actions of website visitors. Done correctly, triggered emails can be more effective than promotional ones because they are timely and relevant to recipients. They often have higher-than-average open, click, and conversion rates.
User Experience
WCAG 2.1 a Welcome Update to Web Accessibility

February 18, 2019 • Joseph C. Dolson

WCAG 2.1 is the first major update to web accessibility guidelines since 2008. Rather than writing a new set from scratch, the W3C amended the existing guidelines to add several new key recommendations.
Platforms & Apps
Ecommerce Product Releases: February 17, 2019

February 17, 2019 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of product releases and updates for mid-February from companies that offer services to ecommerce merchants. There are updates on live-stream shopping, product management with artificial intelligence, digital payments, augmented reality for sampling products, and multiple features from Amazon.
Content Marketing
SEO: 9 Tips for Writing Great Content

February 15, 2019 • Jill Kocher Brown

Textual content enables search engines to understand your site. The words you choose should engage shoppers and boost your site's relevance to the keywords and phrases that consumers search for. If creating articles, blog posts, product descriptions, and other textual content strikes fear into your heart, try some of these tips.
Email & Text Marketing
5 Steps to a Successful Email Drip Campaign

February 14, 2019 • Anna Kayfitz

Emails sent automatically and on a schedule are an effective way of communicating with your customers and prospects. Sometimes referred to as drip campaigns, automated emails target consumers based on their individual actions. In this post, I’ll discuss the steps to set up a successful drip campaign.
Amazon & Marketplaces
Amazon Posts Stellar 2018 Financial Results; 2019 Not as Bright

February 14, 2019 • Marcia Kaplan

Amazon reported its 2018 fiscal year and fourth quarter financial results on January 31. As expected, the company surpassed last year's results with a superb performance. Amazon is cautious in its 2019 guidance, however.
Business > Merchant Voice
How I instill trust on my ecommerce site

February 13, 2019 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

I try to make it easy for shoppers to purchase and rent decor from my ecommerce site. But many retailers — online and multichannel — fail at this. Their sites are often difficult. In this post, I will discuss my six priorities to instill trust and make shopping easy.
Fraud Prevention
4 Safeguards to Prevent Credit Card Fraud

February 12, 2019 • Gagan Mehra

Ecommerce merchants continue to rely on credit card payments for orders. Credit cards are convenient and fast, but they also come with risk. Merchants in the United States lose approximately $190 billion a year to credit card fraud. In this post, I will explain how to minimize credit card fraud.
Marketing & Advertising
The Power of Customer Testimonials for Ecommerce

February 12, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Customer testimonials can be a powerful, conversion-boosting, profit-driving tool for ecommerce companies. You just need to collect and share them. There are many surveys and reports touting the impact customer reviews and testimonials.
B2B
7 Digital Marketing Channels for Apparel Wholesalers

February 11, 2019 • Viktoria Kanevsky

Apparel wholesalers don't typically devote money and effort to online marketing. This is a huge mistake. Marketing online can expose those products to thousands of potential customers every day, worldwide.
Analytics & Data
Using Excel to Forecast Sales, Expenses, More

February 10, 2019 • Anna Kayfitz

Forecasting sales is useful for many reasons, such as inventory management, investor relations, and setting expense and marketing budgets. But producing accurate forecasts can be confusing. In this post, I'll explain how to generate forecasts using Microsoft Excel.
Keyword Research
SEO: Free Keyword Research in 3 Steps

February 8, 2019 • Jill Kocher Brown

There are many expensive tools that claim to simplify and speed up the keyword research process. If you don’t have thousands of dollars in your budget, however, there’s always the old-school, free method.
Checkout Tactics
5 Tips for Selling without Discounting

February 7, 2019 • Pamela Hazelton

Increasing sales via discounts, coupons, and undercutting competitors (or a combination of all three), isn’t typically the best practice for smaller companies.
Business > Merchant Voice
Magento 1.9: Going, going, gone?

February 6, 2019 • Richard Stubbings

Time is running out for the thousands of merchants still using Magento 1.9 or older. Support for Magento 1.9 is due to expire by June 2020 at the latest. But ...
SEO
How Does Google Find and Index Web Pages?

February 6, 2019 • Armando Roggio

When a potential customer enters a query on Google, searching for the products your business sells, she is not actually searching the live internet. Rather, she is looking up web pages on Google's index of the internet. In a sense, this consumer is searching the recent, known web rather than the real-time, live web.
Conversion
Getting Started with Continuity Ecommerce, Part 2: Steps to Success

February 5, 2019 • Charles Nicholls

Continuity ecommerce generates recurring revenue via a combination of connected devices and auto-ship functionality. It's subscriptions on steroids. In "Part 1: Approaches, Expectations," I explained how continuity ecommerce can build high-margin revenue streams. In this article, I’ll focus on how to make continuity programs a success.
Design & Dev Tools
21 Tools and Resources for Voice Commerce

February 5, 2019 • Sig Ueland

For now, voice commerce produces little revenue. In the future, voice commerce may be a primary sales channel. Here is a list of tools and resources for voice commerce — to get started and to help with advanced development.
SEO
How to Do a Competitive SEO Analysis

February 4, 2019 • Jill Kocher Brown

Keeping up with the Joneses in search engine optimization starts with clicking and scrolling in the search results. Copying competitors won’t help you outrank them — at best you’ll keep pace. Instead, identify what they’re doing well, and then do it better.
Platforms & Apps
Ecommerce Product Releases: February 4, 2019

February 4, 2019 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of product releases and updates for late-January from companies that offer services to online merchants. There are updates on shipping, social media, support for entrepreneurs, email marketing, credit automation, and virtual shopping.