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.

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.
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.
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.
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.
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 ...
Business
6 Leading Ecommerce Business Models Explained

February 1, 2019 • Armando Roggio

In this article, I will briefly explain six ecommerce business models. When you think of ecommerce, you probably think of the B2C business model. It is simply retail sales made from a business entity to an individual. Much of Amazon.com uses this business model.
Business
January 2019 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts

January 31, 2019 • PEC Staff

Practical Ecommerce publishes roughly 45 articles per month. Our mission, since 2005, is to publish independent content — articles, podcasts, seminars — that help online merchants. What follows are the most popular articles that we published in January. Articles published earlier in the month are more likely to make the list than later ones.
Finance
New Indian Investment Rules Limit Amazon, Walmart

January 29, 2019 • Marcia Kaplan

The Indian government will soon implement regulations that will severely hamper the Amazon and Flipkart marketplaces from doing business in India. Effective February 1, 2019, the government is enacting restrictions that will challenge the entire business model of those companies.
Business
Building an Ecommerce Business, Part 11: Selling on Amazon

January 28, 2019 • Eric Bandholz

A fundamental decision for many ecommerce entrepreneurs is whether to sell on Amazon. The potential is high, but the competition is increasing tough, among other risks. This is episode 11 in my series on building an ecommerce business from the ground up. For this installment, I spoke with Mike Tecku, co-founder of Sky Solutions.
Cross-border Selling
10 Tips for Successful Cross-border Ecommerce

January 25, 2019 • Gagan Mehra

Cross-border ecommerce sales have grown dramatically in recent years. The industry is collectively learning dos and don'ts for penetrating international markets. In this post, I'll offer 10 tips to expand your ecommerce business into new countries and regions.
B2B
How to Optimize B2B Landing Pages for New Leads

January 24, 2019 • Shawn Arnold

B2B products and services are often complex. Closing the sale frequently takes time, with multiple interactions. Landing pages can capture leads and start the conversation. In this post, I'll address eight ways to generate the most leads from B2B landing pages.
Business
Book Excerpt: ‘Profit First for Ecommerce Sellers’

January 23, 2019 • Cyndi Thomason

The Profit First framework works for all businesses. But it is just that: a framework. My firm has taken this foundation and built a structure specifically for ecommerce sellers. With these few additional techniques, you will position your business for permanent profitability.
Finance
Ecommerce Briefs: Holiday Sales, Retail Chains, 2019 Predictions

January 17, 2019 • Marcia Kaplan

“Ecommerce Briefs” is an occasional series wherein I review news and developments that impact online merchants. In this installment, I’ll address final holiday sales figures, a change in brick-and-mortar location trends, and 2019 predictions.
Business > Merchant Voice
Time to make, save, and invest money

January 11, 2019 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

The start of a new year is a good time to take stock of the previous 12 months in your business. This January, I’m focusing on how I can make, save, and invest money in My Event Décor for 2019.
Business
Building an Ecommerce Business, Part 10: Apparel Sales, Manufacturing

January 10, 2019 • Eric Bandholz

Selling apparel online is notoriously competitive. The margins are thin, typically. With hundreds of SKUs for size and color and styles, inventory management can be complicated — especially when the ...
Shipping & Fulfillment
3 Strategies to Fulfill Like Amazon

January 10, 2019 • Manish Chowdhary

We can be certain that Amazon is spending millions to improve and optimize its shipping processes. In this post, I'll describe three strategies to fulfill like Amazon, even if you have a fraction of its scale and infrastructure.
B2B
B2B Ecommerce Helps Sales Teams (and Customers)

January 9, 2019 • Lori McDonald

Many B2B executives believe that ecommerce cannot fit their business. But B2B companies that don’t embrace digital will lose opportunities. A digitally-savvy competitor could disrupt the market and cause large sales decreases for legacy companies, those that do not evolve.
Business > Merchant Voice
U.K. merchant on likely impact of Brexit

January 8, 2019 • Richard Stubbings

Large companies and suppliers that import goods may be affected by increases in tariffs. There could be delays in receiving the goods. But this should not affect small to midsize merchants. And most of the problems will likely occur between the U.K. and mainland Europe.
Amazon & Marketplaces
How PopSockets Prospered after Leaving Amazon

January 7, 2019 • Phil Masiello

PopSockets opted not to be a direct vendor to Amazon. Instead, it chose one major reseller to represent it on the marketplace. But, Amazon would not allow it. So, PopSockets walked away.
Finance
2018 Holiday Sales Wrap-up

January 6, 2019 • Marcia Kaplan

Consumers happily opened their wallets in the 2018 holiday season, resulting in a five percent increase in overall spending — online and brick-and-mortar. Online spending alone grew by 19.1 percent compared to 2017 and contributed over 13 percent to total holiday sales.
Business > Merchant Voice
Cultural changes affect all merchants — ecommerce and brick-and-mortar

January 3, 2019 • Richard Stubbings

As an ecommerce retailer, you may assume you're ahead of the game and thus will reap the reward of consumers migrating online. This is a dangerous assumption. All businesses have to be ready for cultural changes.
Business
Edwin Perkins Needed a Shippable Product

December 31, 2018 • Armando Roggio

Perhaps you hadn't known or guessed that Edwin Perkins, overcoming obstacles, invented Kool-Aid. Every ecommerce business will face problems and setbacks. But a problem doesn't have to lead to failure.
Business
Building an Ecommerce Business, Part 9: YouTube Strategy

December 30, 2018 • Eric Bandholz

Producing quality videos is immensely difficult. It requires a clear vision from idea to finished product. This is episode nine in my series on building an ecommerce business from the ground up.
Business
2018 Top 25: Our Most Popular Posts of the Year

December 27, 2018 • PEC Staff

As the year draws to a close, we’ve compiled a list of the 25 most popular articles published during 2018, based on the number of page views. Popular subjects included social networks, marketplaces,
Business
The Impact of California Prop 65 on Ecommerce

December 23, 2018 • Armando Roggio

California cancer and birth-defect warning requirements that took effect in August 2018 have stopped at least some online merchants from selling products to state residents.
Business
What Is Your ‘Queen Bee Role’?

December 19, 2018 • Cyndi Thomason

In this post, I'll address how to improve your business’s financial performance for 2019. As businesses grow, entrepreneurs often find that their most valuable resource is time. It's the one commodity they cannot buy.
Business > Merchant Voice
Black Friday bargains? Not from my business

December 18, 2018 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

Australian consumers have long been aware of U.S. bargains to be had around Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Australian retailers have started to run their own promotions to compete. But I won’t be one of them. Here’s why.