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.

Business
8 Key Personnel Roles for Ecommerce Success in 2020

December 29, 2019 • Dale Traxler

It is easier than ever to launch an ecommerce business. Sourcing products is not a problem. Platforms equalize the capabilities of competing stores. Success, therefore, depends on your execution.
Payments
Mobile Payments Streamline Brick-and-mortar Checkout

December 27, 2019 • Mike Eckler

The checkout counter at brick-and-mortar stores can have long lines. Mobile payment acceptance allows merchants to process credit and debit card transactions from anywhere and not necessarily at a counter.
Local Business
Physical Store Closures Hit a New High in 2019

December 26, 2019 • Marcia Kaplan

2019 was not a good year for brick-and-mortar stores. As of November 1, U.S. retail store closures reached 9,302, a 59 percent increase over 2018 according to Coresight Research. The biggest contributor was Payless ShoeSource, which declared bankruptcy and closed all of its 2,100 stores.
Fraud Prevention > Merchant Voice
Plan for fraud (but try to prevent it)

December 23, 2019 • Richard Stubbings

As much as 7.5 percent of all online transactions are fraudulent in one way or another. They all cut into profits. Merchants should plan for fraud and build it into cost calculations and into the necessary margins to cover. Merchants should also strive to prevent it.
Payments
For 2020, Multiple Payment Options Are Essential

December 23, 2019 • Pamela Hazelton

Offering multiple forms of payment, especially for mobile shoppers, will be key in 2020. The payment methods your store accepts can make or break a sale. There are five main types of payments for ecommerce sites. Merchants should offer all of them.
Business
How Do You Define Ecommerce Success?

December 12, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Entrepreneurs can feel inadequate — stressed, overworked, and defeated. But how you feel about your business — good or bad — depends on the rules you use to define success. You may be setting yourself up for failure.
Business
Ecommerce Briefs: Unilever’s Liquidation Site; Amazon’s Shipping Delays; Shopify; Jumia

December 12, 2019 • Marcia Kaplan

“Ecommerce Briefs” is my occasional series on news and developments that impact online merchants. In this installment, I’ll report on Unilever’s new B2B liquidation site, Amazon’s holiday shipping delays, Shopify’s holiday shopping statistics, and the troubles of Jumia, the African ecommerce marketplace.
Business
Apply a ‘Blue Ocean Strategy’ for Objective Business Decisions

December 11, 2019 • Armando Roggio

A "Blue Ocean Strategy" can help businesses identify market opportunities. But it can be misused — in a good way — to identify brand characteristics, resolve tactical conflicts, and help a business see itself from a customer's perspective. I'll address those misuses in this post.
Finance
Sales Report: 2019 Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday

December 4, 2019 • Marcia Kaplan

Adverse weather conditions in many regions and the ease of ordering via mobile devices contributed to record-setting U.S. digital sales for the 2019 Thanksgiving weekend. This is my fifth annual “Sales Report” for Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday.
Business
November 2019 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts

December 1, 2019 • PEC Staff

Practical Ecommerce publishes roughly 45 articles each month. What follows are the most popular articles that we published in November. Articles from early in the month are more likely to make the list than later ones.
Payments
Ecommerce Strategies for a Whirlwind of ‘Pays’

November 26, 2019 • Mike Eckler

Facebook Pay is the latest entry into the world of digital payments, joining Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, WeChat Pay, Alipay, PayPal, Amazon Pay, Venmo, Masterpass, and Visa Checkout. It’s time to demystify all of these “pays” and to create a strategy that will advance your ecommerce business.
B2B
Ecommerce Helps Retain B2B Customers

November 21, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Ecommerce can help retain business buyers via expedited reordering, real-time reporting, and improved customer service. B2B retention is often a combination of product quality, consistent delivery, contractual relationships, competitive negotiated prices, and close ties between sales representatives and their buyers.
B2B
B2B Ecommerce: Walk First, Then Run

November 19, 2019 • Lori McDonald

B2B ecommerce is expanding rapidly with innovative new services and marketing strategies. Much of the innovation focuses on improving personalization. However, that is typically the last step. There are prerequisites to address first.
Amazon & Marketplaces
2 Ways Amazon Directly Sells a Brand’s Products

November 15, 2019 • Mike Begg

Brands on the Amazon marketplace seem to believe that no one can sell their products. That isn’t true. Surprisingly, even Amazon itself could sell a brand's products without the brand's consent.
Cross-border Selling
Alibaba’s 2019 Singles Day: $38 Billion; 200,000 Brands; 78 Countries

November 14, 2019 • Marcia Kaplan

Alibaba’s Singles Day sales on November 11 totaled a record $38.4 billion or 268.4 billion yuan gross merchandise volume, an increase of 26 percent over 2018, according to the company. Gross merchandise volume — GMV — is total sales of merchandise through a particular marketplace over a certain time, excluding fees and commissions.
Amazon & Marketplaces
Why Is Amazon Sending a Holiday Catalog?

November 13, 2019 • Robert Brady

A few days back I received a surprise in the mail courtesy of Amazon: a 2019 gift catalog titled “Holiday Together.” I recognized the Amazon smile logo at the bottom of the cover, which piqued my curiosity. I opened the catalog and turned the pages.
Business
The 2 Universal KPIs for Ecommerce Retailers

November 12, 2019 • Dale Traxler

A business's key performance indicators typically change over time with new opportunities and challenges. But Gross Revenue and Gross Profit are universal KPIs for all ecommerce retailers, all of the time.
B2B
Legacy Software Holds Back B2B Ecommerce

November 11, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Some B2B companies are relying on legacy systems that are not capable of providing the modern ecommerce experience professional buyers seek. There is a myriad of problems with old, out-dated B2B software. But four categories could describe them all.
B2B
What’s the Best B2B Ecommerce Platform?

November 7, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Some estimates suggest the global business-to-business ecommerce market will be more than twice as large as retail ecommerce in 2020. Despite the market's size, many B2B sellers lag behind B2C in ecommerce technology, features, and performance.
Business > Merchant Voice
E.U. anti-fraud legislation emphasizes mobile

November 7, 2019 • Richard Stubbings

Recent E.U. legislation requires banks and payment processors to use two-step authentication. For online transactions in the E.U., the payment now requires not only the card number and the three-digit ...
B2B
B2B Buyers Have High Ecommerce Expectations

November 6, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Manufacturers and distributors know that they need to offer their products online for easy, self-service ordering. But many of those same businesses fear they won't be able to meet customer expectations.
Amazon & Marketplaces
Using Machine Learning to Predict Amazon Search Rankings

November 4, 2019 • Hamlet Batista

Ninety percent of Amazon's product views come from the company's organic site search and not from advertising or external channels. Thus given the importance to merchants of optimizing for Amazon's search engine, A9, it's worth understanding the ranking factors.
Business
Innovative Ideas to Automate Ecommerce Tasks

November 1, 2019 • Gagan Mehra

This post is the second in a series that focuses on innovation in ecommerce. My objective is to highlight improvements that can help merchants. The first post addressed advancements in drone delivery. In this installment, I'll review progress in ecommerce automation, to streamline routine tasks.
Business
October 2019 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts

October 31, 2019 • PEC Staff

Since 2005 we've published articles, seminars, and podcasts to help ecommerce merchants. What follows are the 10 most popular articles that we published in October 2019. Articles published earlier in the month are more likely to make the list than later ones.
Business
How to Find a Manufacturer for DTC Ecommerce Products

October 29, 2019 • Armando Roggio

Entrepreneurs and established retailers are developing their own private label, direct-to-consumer products for ecommerce. But most of these DTC sellers don't plan to manufacture those items in their own facilities with their own workforce, tools, and materials. Rather these businesses need a manufacturing partner.
Business
3 Tips for an Ecommerce Marketing SWOT Analysis

October 28, 2019 • Armando Roggio

A SWOT analysis — strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats — can help an ecommerce business improve its marketing, find new ways to promote its brand, and avoid competitive threats.
Fraud Prevention
19 Free Security Plugins for WordPress

October 28, 2019 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of security plugins for WordPress. There are plugins for firewalls, spam protection, two-factor authentication, and more. All of these plugins are free, though several offer premium features.
Amazon & Marketplaces
4 Ways to Protect Your Brand’s Reputation on Amazon

October 24, 2019 • Mike Begg

Protecting a brand's reputation on Amazon requires diligence. Shady resellers and arbitragers could sell a brand's products. And inferior products and poor service can lead to negative product and seller reviews. In this post, I'll address how to protect your brand’s reputation on Amazon.
Business
Apparel from Plastic Waste Driving DTC Fashion Brands

October 24, 2019 • Marcia Kaplan

A lot of plastic waste is either going into landfills or sitting around in stockpiles. An unlikely savior, the fashion industry, is now buying a lot of that plastic. Here are five direct-to-consumer brands that are successfully making products out of recycled plastic and other recycled material.
Amazon & Marketplaces
Will Amazon’s Appstore Attract Indian Sellers?

October 18, 2019 • Jaydip Parikh

Amazon announced in August that its Marketplace Appstore has expanded to India, Europe, Japan, and Australia. The aim, Amazon stated, is to help sellers “identify trusted third-party applications that complement ...