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 > Merchant Voice
10 ways to offer shoppers a discount

May 29, 2018 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

Many online retailers unintentionally train consumers to expect discounts. Clothing stores are amongst the worst offenders. Constant discounting makes full-price shoppers believe they’re being overcharged. They often won’t shop until the next sale, which leads to a vicious cycle. It is a rare company that doesn’t get asked for discounts. In this post, I'll review 10 ways to offer clients a discount.
Inventory
9 Tips to Manage Out-of-stock Inventory

May 28, 2018 • Armando Roggio

Sometimes even the most-prepared retailers sell out of popular items. How these inventory shortages are communicated on an ecommerce website may impact shopper experience, search engine optimization, and sales. Although not ...
Business
Custom Apparel Business Overthinks a Routine Problem

May 25, 2018 • Armando Roggio

Roy needed product category pages, not custom online stores. What his competitors were really providing was a landing page on their own websites. The header, navigation, and layout were the same for all customers. Only the products displayed and a header graphic were unique to the specific team, business, or organization.
Amazon & Marketplaces
Beardbrand Founder on Moving Away from Amazon

May 24, 2018 • Kerry Murdock

In an ecommerce world that is seemingly dominated by Amazon, Eric Bandholz has just moved his company’s products away from that marketplace. The company, Beardbrand, is now focused on selling ...
Amazon & Marketplaces
Ecommerce Briefs: Walmart Wins Flipkart; Amazon Expands Prime; Target Beefs Up

May 23, 2018 • Marcia Kaplan

In “Ecommerce Briefs,” I address news and developments from online merchants. In this installment, I’ll review Walmart’s purchase of a majority interest in Flipkart, India’s dominant marketplace. I’ll also address ...
Amazon & Marketplaces > Merchant Voice
Has Amazon altered A-Z claims process to help sellers?

May 17, 2018 • Richard Stubbings

I recently took a break from selling on Amazon whilst reorganizing my stock. When I returned I noticed a difference in the A-Z claim process. First, I found that customers are ...
Payments
12 Innovative Mobile Payment Apps

May 14, 2018 • Sig Ueland

Paying with a smartphone is easier than ever. Innovative mobile payment apps are providing consumers with new ways to exchange money with peers, purchase products, use alternative currencies, manage expenditures,
Local Business
Offline Sales Tips for Online Merchants

May 10, 2018 • Curtis McHale

Many brick-and-mortar stores have found success in migrating online. But the trend has reversed somewhat. Pure-play ecommerce companies are finding success with physical stores. We addressed the topic last month,
Amazon & Marketplaces
Amazon Has Superlative First Quarter, Raises Prime Fee

May 10, 2018 • Marcia Kaplan

Ecommerce giant Amazon had a blockbuster first quarter. The period from January 1 through March 31, 2018 easily surpassed analysts’ predictions. Revenue jumped 43 percent to $51 billion, compared with ...
Business
Lessons Learned: Hollywood Mirrors Has a Good Problem

May 9, 2018 • Jennifer D. Meacham

With less than two years online, U.K.-based Hollywood Mirrors has a good problem: keeping up with demand. “I should have ordered more stock, instead of being cautious.” Adam Watson, founder of Hollywood ...
Business > Merchant Voice
Why sell barbells?

May 3, 2018 • Peter Keller

I’m often asked why I started FringeSport. People inquire, “Of all the things to do, why sell barbells?” I tell them that if I wanted only to make money, I ...
Business
Net Promoter Score Is the Best KPI for Ecommerce Growth

May 3, 2018 • Armando Roggio

“Net Promoter Score” is a simple-to-understand customer loyalty indicator closely associated with sales and profit growth. Online sellers can use this metric and associated customer interactions to improve customer service,
Business
April 2018 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts

April 30, 2018 • PEC Staff

What follows are our 10 most popular articles for April 2018, recognizing that articles we published earlier in the month are more likely to make the list than later ones. 13
Local Business
Ecommerce Merchants Embrace Brick-and-mortar

April 26, 2018 • Marcia Kaplan

With all the talk of a “retail apocalypse,” you might wonder why any merchant would want to open a brick-and-mortar store. Yet several successful ecommerce companies are now operating physical ...
Business > Merchant Voice
Merging 2 ecommerce sites

April 25, 2018 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

On April 23, 2018, the third anniversary of the launch of My Wedding Décor, I decided to merge that website into My Event Décor. I need to focus my energy ...
Amazon & Marketplaces
Former Amazon Exec on Maintaining Brand Control

April 25, 2018 • Armando Roggio

James Thomson spent six years as head of Amazon Services, which recruits sellers to Amazon’s marketplace. He is now co-founder and partner of Buy Box Experts, a consultancy, and co-founder ...
B2B
Does WooCommerce Fit B2B Companies?

April 24, 2018 • Lori McDonald

WooCommerce is among the fastest growing platforms. We've addressed it many times. B2C merchants, especially, value WooCommerce's flexibility and plugin options. My expertise, however, is with B2B companies. In my experience, companies with meaningful B2B sales should not choose WooCommerce.
Business > Merchant Voice
Europe-based merchant accesses GDPR

April 23, 2018 • Richard Stubbings

The E.U.'s new data protection law goes into effect on May 25. Many businesses here in Europe and elsewhere have ignored it. That is a mistake. Failure to comply could result in an eye-watering fine of $20 million. If your company does business or communicates with any consumer in Europe, you should comply, or at least take steps to comply.
Amazon & Marketplaces
How to convert Amazon buyers to your customers (without breaking the rules)

April 16, 2018 • Phil Masiello

An ecommerce brand has to decide whether to sell its products on Amazon's Marketplace, which is the dominant buying resource for today’s consumer. Independent brands can use Amazon as a tool to obtain customers. Through proper merchandising of their products, brands can turn Amazon buyers into their own loyal customers.
Amazon & Marketplaces
Ecommerce Briefs: Walmart, Amazon Vie for Flipkart; Etsy and Adidas Refocus

April 11, 2018 • Marcia Kaplan

“Ecommerce Briefs” is my occasional series of news and developments from online merchants. In this installment, I’ll address the competition between Walmart and Amazon to acquire Flipkart, India’s dominant marketplace. I’ll ...
Business
Lessons Learned: Battic Door Thrives in Energy Conservation

April 10, 2018 • Jennifer D. Meacham

Massachusetts-based Battic Door is 15 years in the making. With a credit-card investment of $5,000, owner Mark Tyrol has turned his home-insulation ideas into $1.5 million of annual sales. “I found ...
Business > Merchant Voice
Pros and cons of meeting with suppliers

April 4, 2018 • Peter Keller

The primary reason to not visit my suppliers is I do not care about them. For example, if I am drop shipping from a supplier that is significantly larger than FringeSport, there may be no need to cultivate a relationship. The main reason, however, to visit suppliers is to build relationships. If you treat suppliers like you're doing one-time deals, they're going to treat you in the same way.
Business
The Next Generation of Ecommerce Management

April 2, 2018 • Armando Roggio

Ecommerce is disruptive. It has changed the way millions of people shop. But the management of many ecommerce businesses has not evolved. It often operates, seemingly, as an old-world dictatorship or a fiefdom. What follows are several ideas to organize and manage an ecommerce business in 2018 and beyond. Some of these are concepts may seem revolutionary. But, then again, so is ecommerce.
Business
March 2018 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts

March 30, 2018 • PEC Staff

What follows are our 10 most popular articles for March 2018, recognizing that articles we published earlier in the month are more likely to make the list than later ones. How ...
Finance
ICOs Are the Newest Form of Alternative Funding

March 28, 2018 • Marcia Kaplan

If words like cryptocurrency, cryptocoin, Bitcoin, and blockchain befuddle you, you're not alone. Even the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is having a hard time keeping up with all the new alternative funding mechanisms. The latest funding craze is an Initial Coin Offering, an "ICO," which is a new form of crowdfunding using cryptocurrency.
Cross-border Selling > Merchant Voice
Yandex.Market, in new joint venture, seeks non-Russian sellers

March 27, 2018 • Maksim Komonov

A leading Russian bank and the largest online Russian marketplace have announced a joint venture that will likely improve cross-border ecommerce. Sberbank is the largest and most trusted saving bank in ...
Amazon & Marketplaces
17 Amazon Seller Tools to Find Profitable Products

March 25, 2018 • Connor Gillivan

As an Amazon merchant, I'm always looking for the next best product to sell — a high-potential item that no seller has discovered. In this article, I will share 17 Amazon seller tools that help source new products. Select a tool from the list, put together a standard process, and hand it off to a team member. Keep the process running at all times. It will increase your chances of finding that next best product.
Local Business
SEO: Store Locators Good for Bots, Good for Shoppers

March 23, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown

If you have more than one physical location, in addition to your ecommerce site, you need a store locator. Slapping all your store addresses on a single web page and calling it done doesn’t cut it for shoppers or for natural search performance. An optimal store locator should be searchable for your customers and also crawlable for the search engines.
Shipping & Fulfillment
Fulfillment Requirements of Retailer-owned Marketplaces

March 21, 2018 • Stephen Bulger

There are many marketplace options other than Amazon for merchants. We all know about eBay. Big retailers such Walmart, Costco, Home Depot, Best Buy, Nordstrom, and Dick’s Sporting Goods offer marketplaces, too. In this post, I'll address fulfillment requirements of retailer-owned marketplaces.
Fraud Prevention
10 Ways That Artificial Intelligence Helps Merchants

March 21, 2018 • Gagan Mehra

The term "artificial intelligence" refers to software that learns from experience. It mimics the human mind in that it changes responses based on data. Self-driving cars and voice-enabled devices rely on artificial intelligence. Retail businesses can also benefit. In this post, I'll list 10 use cases of how artificial intelligence helps merchants.