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
Will Amazon’s Private Labels Squeeze Out Smaller Brands?

December 13, 2018 • Marcia Kaplan

Amazon is aggressively expanding both the number of private label goods it sells and the product categories it offers. Besides dominating online sales, Amazon is the source of over 50 percent of all online product searches, surpassing Google. Amazon's private label strategy is simple.
Business
Building an Ecommerce Business, Part 8: Customer Service

December 12, 2018 • Eric Bandholz

Startups and seasoned merchants alike can run into hiccups with managing customer service. Is it better to do it in-house or to outsource? Should you hire someone from the start? This is episode eight in my series on building an ecommerce business from the ground up.
Inventory
16 Inventory Sources for Fashion Retailers

December 5, 2018 • Viktoria Kanevsky

Merchants who prefer touching and feeling during the buying process should consider trade shows. Wholesale, online marketplaces are another good way of finding fashion merchandise. You can shop dozens of vendors at the same time without leaving your office.
Shipping & Fulfillment > Merchant Voice
Why we changed our returns policy

December 4, 2018 • Peter Keller

How should an ecommerce store handle returns? Draconian merchants charge for shipping (both ways) and a hefty re-stock fee — 15 to 25 percent. I’ve never seen a company entirely deny returns.
Business
November 2018 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts

November 30, 2018 • PEC Staff

What follows are the most popular articles that we published in November 2018, recognizing that articles published earlier in the month are more likely to make the list than later ones.
Finance
Sales Report: 2018 Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday

November 28, 2018 • Marcia Kaplan

Consumers embraced 2018 online holiday shopping with gusto starting on Thanksgiving Day and culminating on Cyber Monday, which became the highest U.S. ecommerce sales day in history with $7.9 billion in revenue. Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday all exhibited healthy year-over-year sales growth.
Business
Building an Ecommerce Business, Part 7: Shipping and Fulfillment

November 28, 2018 • Eric Bandholz

A merchant who sells physical products has to figure out how to efficiently get those items into the hands of customers. It can become complicated as the business scales and receives international orders. This is episode seven in my series on building an ecommerce business from the ground up.
Business
A Year-round Cash Strategy for Ecommerce Sellers

November 25, 2018 • Cyndi Thomason

Let’s be clear about why a cash strategy is important. The fourth quarter is when ecommerce merchants hope to have more cash than normal. In this post, I'll outline a five-step process to calculate your year-long cash needs, manage incoming cash, and reward yourself.
B2B
6 Ways to Improve Ecommerce Site Search

November 23, 2018 • Shawn Arnold

Site search is arguably the most important area when it comes to user experience. Buyers don’t have time to hunt for products. In this post, I'll offer a few practical action steps for improving site search on your ecommerce site — B2B and B2C.
Business > Merchant Voice
Address potential business conflicts during good times

November 16, 2018 • Richard Stubbings

Very often people launch businesses with friends and family. The reason, typically, is that friends and family are trustworthy. But what happens when things go wrong, or when people disagree?
Staffing
Building an Ecommerce Business, Part 6: Hiring Employees

November 15, 2018 • Eric Bandholz

Ayman Al-Abdullah, president of AppSumo, says a new ecommerce business would almost certainly fail without the right people.
Cross-border Selling
Alibaba’s 2018 Singles Day: Record Sales, Slower Growth

November 14, 2018 • Marcia Kaplan

Alibaba's tenth Singles Day event this past Sunday again set a 24-hour sales record. Those results represent an increase of about 27 percent over last year, smaller than the 39 percent year-over-year increase achieved in 2017.
Amazon & Marketplaces
Resellers on Amazon Can Damage a Brand

November 8, 2018 • Phil Masiello

Selling on Amazon can generate revenue, reinforce your brand’s reputation, and expose your product to 8 million U.S. visitors per day. Using the Amazon marketplace, the opportunity for success is ...
Shipping & Fulfillment
7 Tried-and-true Free Shipping Promotions to Drive Holiday Sales

November 1, 2018 • Armando Roggio

A free shipping offer is a powerful ecommerce promotion. It can boost conversion rates and increase average order values. Like other forms of advertising and promotion, free shipping is an expense.
Business
October 2018 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts

October 31, 2018 • PEC Staff

What follows are the most popular articles that we published in October 2018, recognizing that articles published earlier in the month are more likely to make the list than later ...
Business
Building an Ecommerce Business, Part 5: Paid Acquisition

October 30, 2018 • Eric Bandholz

Knowing where to advertise can be daunting to new and experienced ecommerce entrepreneurs alike. There are many options. Digital marketing agencies can provide some answers. For this interview, I visited with Alex Hart, founder of Good Joo Joo, an Austin, Texas-based digital marketing agency. I asked her about paid acquisition, the process of using advertising to acquire customers.
Business > Merchant Voice
My personal productivity stack

October 29, 2018 • Peter Keller

When I first heard of "Getting Things Done," the time-management methodology and book, I was mystified. Surely it’s not that hard to accomplish tasks. Just do them! Now that I’m a little older and a little wiser, I’ve evolved my productivity stack over the years. Here’s how I now get things done.
B2B
Skeptical about B2B Ecommerce? Try a Proof of Concept

October 25, 2018 • Lori McDonald

Your B2B company leadership is skeptical about changing business and sales methods. How can you make a case for ecommerce? A proof of concept is a good way to test the digital commerce waters, to learn. Ideally, the project can be completed quickly and has a quick return on investment.
Local Business
Ecommerce Merchants Embrace Clicks-to-bricks

October 25, 2018 • Marcia Kaplan

Digitally native businesses are opening physical stores at a brisk pace, embracing the "clicks to bricks" movement. This trend shows that physical stores are not dead, though the big-box mall model may not be the blueprint for the future.
Shipping & Fulfillment
6 Holiday Ecommerce Shipping Mistakes to Avoid

October 24, 2018 • Armando Roggio

Customers expect delivery. For online stores that sell tangible products, order fulfillment is arguably the single most essential task. It is the culmination of marketing, web development, and customer service.
Business
How to Streamline IRS 1099 Filings

October 21, 2018 • Cyndi Thomason

One of the earliest tax deadlines of the new year occurs on January 31, which is the filing date to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service of 1099s from your vendors. In this post, I'll offer guidance to streamline 1099 filing. I'll address auditing your records, filing requirements, and software tools that can make filing easier.
Staffing
Workers’ Compensation Basics for Ecommerce, Retail

October 18, 2018 • Armando Roggio

Retailers selling in a brick-and-mortar store or via ecommerce may have a statutory requirement to purchase workers' compensation insurance to ensure that employees get the care they need when accidents happen. The specifics of these compensation programs are state regulated. So the requirements for a particular company will depend on state law.
Business
Building an Ecommerce Business, Part 4: Copywriting Matters

October 17, 2018 • Eric Bandholz

Good copy sells. Spicing up your copy will give your online store a personality to stand above competitors. In this fourth installment in my series of conversations about building an ecommerce business, I visited with Neville Medhora, founder of Kopywriting Kourse.
Fraud Prevention
2 Prominent Ecommerce Fraud Risks in 2018 Holiday Season

October 16, 2018 • Armando Roggio

Incidents of ecommerce payment fraud rise in proportion to holiday sales. But merchants can protect themselves. The key is to recognize popular forms of fraud and then employ steps to prevent them. Two prominent examples this holiday season are account takeovers and coupon abuse.
Cross-border Selling
Luxury Ecommerce Merchant Farfetch Goes Public

October 14, 2018 • Marcia Kaplan

In one of the largest consumer-facing IPOs of the year, Farfetch, an online luxury-fashion marketplace, listed on the New York Stock Exchange on September 21. Initially priced at $20 per share, the stock — FTCH — opened at $27 per share, rose to $30 and closed at $28.20, 41 percent above the target opening price.
Business > Merchant Voice
Nonstop change is a certainty for ecommerce

October 10, 2018 • Richard Stubbings

The internet continues to disrupt the selling of products and services. The traditional ecommerce strategy of creating a single site and trying to market to the entire internet from that site ...
Business
Building an Ecommerce Business, Part 3: Early Days

October 9, 2018 • Eric Bandholz

The early days of an ecommerce business are among the most important. Growing a business from infancy is complicated and unforgiving. This is the third installment in my series of conversations about building an ecommerce business.
Amazon & Marketplaces
4 Myths about Amazon’s Private Label Brands

October 8, 2018 • Phil Masiello

To date, Amazon has introduced roughly 70 private label brands. This has rattled many observers. But private label products are not new. The only difference between Amazon and other retailers is that consumers shop on their computers instead of physical stores.
Business > Merchant Voice
The pain of relaunching my website

October 2, 2018 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

When I launched My Wedding Décor in April 2015 on the Shopify platform, I chose the Retina Austin theme by New Zealand-based developer Out of the Sandbox. The theme was —
Staffing > Merchant Voice
Hiring for ecommerce, then and now

October 2, 2018 • Peter Keller

What’s the best method for hiring ecommerce employees? I have struggled with the issue over the years. In this post, I’ll describe FringeSport’s hiring process. When we were a bootstrapped startup,