Business

An ecommerce site is a business. Our Management & Finance category addresses online payments, funding needs, employee issues, merchant profiles, key metrics, multichannel and omnichannel strategies, cross-border analyses, inventory management, accounting topics, sales taxes, and much more.

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Amazon & Marketplaces
19 Helpful Tools for Amazon Sellers

February 17, 2020 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of tools to help Amazon sellers with product research, keyword research, analytics, feedback and review management, and more. There are niche tools to simplify tasks and all-in-one platforms for comprehensive management.
Cross-border Selling
Coronavirus Disrupting the Global Economy, Including Ecommerce

February 13, 2020 • Marcia Kaplan

When the coronavirus outbreak emerged in Wuhan, Hubei Province, Chinese authorities asserted that it was localized, albeit in an area with a large population and many manufacturing plants. Then the virus spread to other areas of China.
Inventory
3 Inventory KPIs to Drive Ecommerce Profits

February 10, 2020 • Dale Traxler

Basic inventory management involves tracking quantities by channel, location, and return rates. Key performance indicators, however, are far more critical for driving profits. In this post, I'll address three essential inventory KPIs: turnover, carrying costs, and opportunity costs.
Staffing > Merchant Voice
Need good employees? Be a good employer

February 4, 2020 • Richard Stubbings

Hiring and managing employees is among the most challenging tasks of business owners. An employee-employer relationship is much different than a social one. You'll spend many hours a day together. But employers should never forget that the relationship is about business.
Business
January 2020 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts

January 31, 2020 • PEC Staff

What follows are the most popular articles that we published in January 2020. Articles from early in the month are more likely to make the list than later ones.
Amazon & Marketplaces
New U.S. Regulations on Counterfeit Goods Target Marketplaces

January 30, 2020 • Marcia Kaplan

On January 24, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a report signaling the federal government’s intention to crack down on ecommerce sales of counterfeit goods. In the report, the federal government all but declares that ecommerce is a threat to national security.
Amazon & Marketplaces
11 Key Metrics to Evaluate Potential Marketplaces

January 30, 2020 • Anna Kayfitz

There are dozens of worthwhile marketplaces worldwide. Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and Etsy are examples. What follows are tips for using data to identify (and optimize) marketplaces to sell your products.
B2B
The Benefits of Subscriptions for B2B Ecommerce

January 29, 2020 • Lori McDonald

Subscription-based ecommerce is increasingly popular for consumer goods. Examples include grocery products, pet supplies, and beauty items. But B2B merchants can offer subscriptions, too.
Shipping & Fulfillment
Q&A: ‘Can We Reduce Shipping Costs?’

January 29, 2020 • Armando Roggio

If you've ever wondered whether your ecommerce store could afford free shipping, or if you have been frustrated by poor shipping estimates at checkout, this post is for you. I'll address four common ecommerce shipping questions.
Payments
A Guide to Payment Tokens for Ecommerce

January 27, 2020 • Mike Eckler

Innovation in electronic payments has always balanced risk and convenience. Generally, a payment method that's convenient for consumers is risky for merchants. The use of "tokens" can reduce that risk by protecting credit card details.
Business
DuckDuckGo Attracts Privacy-conscious Shoppers

January 24, 2020 • Armando Roggio

DuckDuckGo is a general-purpose search engine that shows results from its own index and about 400 trusted sources. It does not collect or share users' personal information. This single fact could make it popular with tech-savvy, privacy-conscious consumers.
Business > Merchant Voice
For 2020, use pre-orders to avoid dead stock

January 21, 2020 • Richard Stubbings

It is time to plan for the new year. Consider offering pre-orders. It's a topic by itself — researching suitable products, marketing to potential customers, and then communicating with those prospects about their requirements.
Finance
2019 Holiday Sales Wrap-up

January 16, 2020 • Marcia Kaplan

The 2019 holiday shopping season exhibited mixed results, with online revenues growing substantially but brick-and-mortar sales showing meager or negative growth. The entire holiday season — November 1 through December 31 — saw a modest total increase in overall revenues.
Staffing
Outsourcing SEO Starts with Knowing Your Needs

January 13, 2020 • Jill Kocher Brown

Ecommerce merchants have many choices for outsourcing search engine optimization. Finding the right agency often comes down to knowing your business's needs, as well as understanding the different types of SEO services.
Payments
New Electronic Disbursement Methods Save Time and Money

January 12, 2020 • Mike Eckler

Businesses have expenses to pay. “Paying the bills” might not seem interesting or new. but recent innovations make disbursements faster, cheaper, safer, and more convenient.
Amazon & Marketplaces
How to Sell Groceries on Amazon

January 9, 2020 • Mike Begg

Amazon, Target, and Walmart are competing for a dominant U.S. online grocery presence. Amazon sells grocery items via three channels: Prime Pantry, AmazonFresh, and its third-party marketplace. I'll address each channel in this post.
Amazon & Marketplaces
Amazon’s Brand Analytics Lowers Ad Costs, Drives Sales

January 7, 2020 • Phil Masiello

Amazon's Brand Analytics provides valuable metrics for sellers in the Brand Registry. The metrics include recent advertising changes, such as targeting competitors in ads and search terms. Used strategically, the data can bolster sales.
Business
2019 Top 25: Our Most Popular Posts of the Year

December 30, 2019 • Kerry Murdock

We've published roughly 500 articles in 2019. What follows is our annual list of the 25 most popular based on the number of page views. Articles related to search engine optimization remain, collectively, the most read. Other leading topics include