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
One Click Retail Exec on Amazon’s Private Label Brands

July 19, 2018 • Armando Roggio

Amazon has made significant investments in its own private label brands, in areas such as diapers, dog food, and paper towels. The company’s private label strategy could be indicative of ...
B2B
3 Reasons Why B2B Ecommerce Projects Fail

July 16, 2018 • Lori McDonald

Business-to-business ecommerce projects range from changing an entire platform to adding features and improvements to the current one. Unfortunately, failed B2B ecommerce projects are common. In this post, I'll address three reasons for the failures and how to avoid them.
Payments
7 Apps and Readers for Mobile Credit Card Processing

July 16, 2018 • Sig Ueland

With credit card apps and readers, merchants can sell to customers at events, pop-up shops, or wherever they meet-up. Here is a list of apps and readers for mobile credit card ...
Cross-border Selling
Cash on Delivery Dominates Indian Ecommerce

July 13, 2018 • Manish Dudharejia

Ecommerce in India remains heavily dependent on the cash-on-delivery mode of payment — more than 50 percent of transactions. In this post, I'll address why Indian shoppers continue this traditional payment route.
Amazon & Marketplaces > Merchant Voice
Using Amazon to wind down a retail business

July 13, 2018 • Richard Stubbings

There are many blogs on how to improve sales on Amazon. In this post, I’ll address the opposite: how to wind down and stop selling on Amazon entirely. It is becoming ...
Business
15 Common Mistakes of Fashion and Lifestyle Merchants

July 12, 2018 • Viktoria Kanevsky

The failure rate for startup businesses in the U.S. is roughly 80 percent. As a consultant and former employee for fashion and lifestyle businesses, I can point to frequent missteps that lead to business failure. In this post, I'll list 15 common mistakes of small and large companies, in my experience.
Business
Looking to Sell Your Business? Here’s What Buyers Seek

July 11, 2018 • Adam Lean

You’ve decided to sell your business. Buyers view your business as an investment. They are most interested in cash flow. Here are four actions to boost the cash flow of your business.
Business > Merchant Voice
4 ecommerce-related businesses to start right now

July 5, 2018 • Peter Keller

I’m often approached by many would-be entrepreneurs who want to start a business as soon as possible. They are usually in their early 20s, living in the U.S., and working a job where they are unfulfilled and (possibly) underpaid. In this post, I'll offer four low-risk ways to start a side hustle that can grow into a full-time business.
Amazon & Marketplaces
Are Amazon’s Private Label Brands a Trend for Other Merchants?

July 2, 2018 • Armando Roggio

Amazon has made significant investments in its own private label brands, such as diapers, dog food, and paper towels. The company’s private label strategy may be indicative of a burgeoning ...
Business
June 2018 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts

June 30, 2018 • PEC Staff

What follows are the most popular articles that we published in June 2018. Articles published earlier in the month are more likely to make the list than later ones. 15 Tools ...
Business
Sales Tax Pro on Impact of Supreme Court’s Wayfair Decision

June 28, 2018 • Kerry Murdock

For roughly 200 years, the U.S. Supreme Court has resolved disputes arising from companies selling products across state borders. A notable case occurred in 1992 when the state of North Dakota ...
Cross-border Selling > Merchant Voice
How to sell alcohol online in Russia (or not)

June 27, 2018 • Maksim Komonov

The most popular niche for online Russian buyers is apparel and footwear. That is according to East-West Digital News, which covers technology and innovation in Central and Eastern Europe. But ...
Business
7 Lessons from Confucius for Ecommerce Businesses

June 25, 2018 • Armando Roggio

Wisdom, personal or corporate, has not changed much in 2,500 years, or so it would seem. Confucius, the ancient Chinese philosopher and politician, has much to teach us about operating ...
Business
Lessons Learned: $15,000 Name Boosts SpyGuy.com

June 24, 2018 • Jennifer D. Meacham

SpyGuy.com sells security systems — hidden cameras, surveillance detectors, audio recorders. The company is located in Richardson, Texas, near Dallas. Allen Walton’s ecommerce site brings in roughly $1 million per year.
Fraud Prevention
3 Reminders about Online Payment Fraud in 2018

June 22, 2018 • Armando Roggio

At the global scale, online businesses and their customers suffer billions of dollars in fraud losses annually. There are some important things ecommerce businesses should keep in mind. Start with a ...
Cross-border Selling
Chinese Consumers Are Eager to Buy Foreign Goods

June 20, 2018 • Marcia Kaplan

China is the world’s largest ecommerce market. What is unique about Chinese cross-border ecommerce is that large amounts of transactions flow both ways. Chinese consumers are heavy buyers of foreign ...
Amazon & Marketplaces
The Real Benefit of Amazon Reviews

June 19, 2018 • Phil Masiello

I’m a longtime seller on Amazon’s marketplace. I also mentor many sellers and help brands to improve their marketplace sales. And I belong to various Amazon forums. The topic of ...
Business
10 Numbers Every Ecommerce Business Must Track

June 19, 2018 • Adam Lean

Most ecommerce storeowners are good at growing sales and streamlining operations. However, when it comes to improving how much cash the business generates they hope and pray that it all ...
Business
How to Land a Great Ecommerce Job

June 15, 2018 • Armando Roggio

There are many good reasons to work in ecommerce. Perhaps you’re attracted to the industry’s rapid growth. Or maybe you see ecommerce marketing or operations as a challenge — a ...
Business > Merchant Voice
What not to sell on an ecommerce site

June 14, 2018 • Richard Stubbings

There is no shortage of advice on what to sell on an ecommerce site. In this post, however, I will describe what not to sell. Ecommerce should be about making money.
Cross-border Selling
Africa: An Emerging Ecommerce Market with Many Challenges

June 13, 2018 • Marcia Kaplan

Africa has been a laggard in ecommerce for many reasons, including lack of internet access, poverty, a high rate of illiteracy, and logistical inefficiencies. Most of these problems persist but ...
Shipping & Fulfillment
How to (Clearly) Explain Shipping and Return Policies

June 13, 2018 • Marcia Yudkin

Ideally, a shopper comes to your site, finds a product she wants to buy, puts it in her cart, and then completes the purchase. Near the end of that process,
Amazon & Marketplaces
What the Walmart-Flipkart Deal Means for India

June 11, 2018 • Manish Dudharejia

The Indian ecommerce market is growing quickly thanks to smartphone penetration and fast internet. Overall ecommerce revenue in India is projected to reach $64 billion by 2020 from $38.5 billion ...
Staffing
How to Find (Great) Ecommerce Employees

June 10, 2018 • Armando Roggio

You’re hiring. Your ecommerce operation is growing. You need help. But how do you find that just-right person for your company? I recently had hiring opportunities. I added five roles to ...
B2B
8 Approaches to B2B Dealer Locators

June 7, 2018 • Lori McDonald

Business-to-business companies frequently sell products through dealers. But it’s not always obvious to would-be customers how to locate a dealer, to inquire. In this post, I’ll review eight examples of ...
Fraud Prevention
Retailers (including Amazon) Crack Down on Return Fraud

June 6, 2018 • Marcia Kaplan

Ecommerce customers value a lenient and free return process. The most successful online and omnichannel merchants have been willing to accommodate those wishes. Until recently. A survey by the National Retail ...
Business > Merchant Voice
Magento sold, again

June 5, 2018 • Richard Stubbings

With the acquisition by Adobe, the future of Magento is raising questions. Magento merchants naturally wonder whether Adobe will support the open source version and, indeed, if it will remain free.
Business
May 2018 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts

May 31, 2018 • PEC Staff

What follows are our 10 most popular articles for May 2018, recognizing that articles we published earlier in the month are more likely to make the list than later ones. 7
Business > Merchant Voice
The elements of a (successful) ecommerce strategy

May 30, 2018 • David Sasson

The importance of an ecommerce strategy is clear. What is not clear is how to develop a good one. Some strategy statements do not provide a lot of direction, such ...
Inventory
Strategies for Discontinued Inventory Pages

May 30, 2018 • Armando Roggio

When an item in an ecommerce store is temporarily out of stock, the site can add a notice or send a message to a shopper. But what should an online ...