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.

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
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.
Cross-border Selling
Hreflang Explained

November 12, 2019 • Bill Sebald

Hreflang is an HTML attribute that allows Google and other search engines to recognize localized versions of web pages. If you have sections of your site for a French audience, for example, an hreflang tag helps Google understand that the section should appear in search results on Google.fr, not Google.com.
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.