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 | B2B | Cross-border Selling | Finance | Fraud Prevention | Inventory | Local Business | Payments | Shipping & Fulfillment | Staffing-
Business
How to Measure 2014 Holiday Ecommerce Marketing
December 15, 2014 • Armando Roggio
U.S. online retail sales generally grew throughout 2014. And many Internet merchants have enjoyed increased holiday sales so far. Nonetheless, smart businesses always look for ways to improve, and knowing ...
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Amazon & Marketplaces
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Merchant Voice
The end of automated Amazon repricing?
December 15, 2014 • Richard Stubbings
We all know of Black Friday and the sale prices offered on that day to kickstart holiday sales. But the repricing software Repricer Express created an entire new meaning to ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
The value of focus, within Theory of Constraints
December 12, 2014 • David Sasson
By pulling together ideas from a few different management paradigms, I’ve developed a methodology to drive growth for my ecommerce company by setting up a structure of focus on an ...
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Cross-border Selling
Mexico Poised for Ecommerce?
December 11, 2014 • Marcia Kaplan
With Mexico’s reputation for unrelenting poverty and crime, it’s difficult to think of the country as a good place to do business. Yet, with a population of 122.3 million and ...
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Local Business
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Merchant Voice
Brick-and-click stores should offer free pick-up
December 9, 2014 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth
Free shipping is commonplace for ecommerce companies. For brick-and-click companies — those with online and physical stores — free pick-up can be a helpful shipping option for ecommerce customers that ...
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Amazon & Marketplaces
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Merchant Voice
Amazon’s version of Christmas customer care
December 7, 2014 • Richard Stubbings
At this time of year, more than any other time, you have to work harder at customer care. This is due to two main reasons. Firstly, you have a much ...
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Fraud Prevention
How to Choose a Fraud Prevention Service, for Ecommerce
December 7, 2014 • Bob Angus
Ecommerce merchants love the holidays. So do fraudsters. Chargeback cheats and organized criminals know you’re busy driving sales, fulfilling orders, and keeping customers happy. They hope you are not as ...
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Business
Websites Liable for Children’s Data under Federal Law
December 4, 2014 • Elizabeth Lewis
Last year at Christmas, I was surprised at the number of technology-focused toys aimed at children under four. I saw (a) stuffed animals that you can plug into your computer ...
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Finance
Black Friday and Cyber Monday Losing Mojo?
December 3, 2014 • Marcia Kaplan
Although Cyber Monday and Black Friday online sales both broke records, analysts are seeing signs that the two big shopping days are losing some punch. Forrester Research ecommerce analyst Sucharita ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
Consider niche purchasing
December 1, 2014 • Richard Stubbings
Much has been written about the advantages of niche selling. This is because it is a great way forward for independent retailers. Less is written about niche purchasing. This is ...
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Business
Thanksgiving Day Online Sales Leap 14.3 Percent in 2014
December 1, 2014 • Armando Roggio
Even while the traditional Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing lay still warm on the table, Christmas shoppers were on tablets and desktop computers making purchases, boosting U.S. online sales some 14.3
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Business
101 Ways to Use Data, for Ecommerce
November 25, 2014 • Gagan Mehra
Data can be extremely important to ecommerce merchants, as it helps them understand their customers better and generate more revenue. There are many ways a merchant can use data in ...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
Ecommerce Drop Shipping vs. Marketplaces: Pros, Cons
November 25, 2014 • Jeremy Hanks
This is the fifth installment in my series on drop shipping and inventory supply models. In “Drop Shipping for Ecommerce, Part 1: Supply Chain History,” my first article, I addressed basic ...
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Business
IBM Shows Off Analytics, Makes Holiday Predictions
November 24, 2014 • Armando Roggio
Mobile commerce will boom this holiday season, email will work better, and IBM intends to prove it with real-time online shopping trends data free to anyone. IBM’s ExperienceOne Benchmark Live online ...
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Business
6 Steps to an Effective Ecommerce Privacy Policy
November 21, 2014 • Bob Angus
Online privacy is essential for ecommerce visitors and customers. The frequent headlines of security breaches and inappropriate data use by major companies have consumers more vigilant than ever about their ...
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Payments
B2B Merchants Often Overpay for Card Processing
November 21, 2014 • Phil Hinke
Business-to-business merchants often overpay for credit card processing. There are many reasons for this, but one of the main ones is they choose a merchant account provider that doesn’t have ...
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Business
Lessons Learned: Car Forums the Ramp to Ecommerce Success
November 20, 2014 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth
As a boy in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1960s, Fredric Gwinn used to watch his father, a machinist by trade, work on the family car, doing everything from routine maintenance ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
5 tips for more holiday ecommerce sales
November 19, 2014 • David Sasson
There is a saying I’ve heard since moving to Kansas: “You make hay when the sun shines.” Well, for virtually all retailers in the U.S., the sun shines during the ...
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Business
Mobile Commerce vs. Desktop: 7 Differences
November 19, 2014 • Joe Robison
Ecommerce is growing every year. But mobile ecommerce — purchases from smartphones and tablets — is growing even faster. One of the key points merchants must understand when building mobile ...
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Fraud Prevention
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Merchant Voice
How I detect ecommerce fraud
November 17, 2014 • Erica Tevis
I read an article the other day that said online fraud is at its highest during the Black Friday to Cyber Monday timeframe. It’s no wonder: That is the busiest ...
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Amazon & Marketplaces
SEO: Optimizing Product Content on Amazon
November 14, 2014 • Jill Kocher Brown
In “SEO: The Case for Optimizing Amazon,” my article last week, I reviewed the growing importance of optimizing products for Amazon’s massive internal search engine. In this article, I’ll describe ...
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Cross-border Selling
Ecommerce in Russia: Another Emerging Market?
November 12, 2014 • Marcia Kaplan
While ecommerce continues to take a larger share of overall retail sales in the United States and Western Europe, the biggest growth rates are occurring in emerging markets such as ...
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Amazon & Marketplaces
SEO: The Case for Optimizing Amazon
November 7, 2014 • Jill Kocher Brown
Some ecommerce businesses, especially those that manufacture the products they sell online or acquire their products at a deep discount, are experimenting with optimizing on Amazon alongside their existing websites.
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Business
8 Reasons Why Ecommerce Businesses Fail
November 7, 2014 • Armando Roggio
Starting an ecommerce business can be fast, relatively easy, and not very expensive. But with something like an 80-percent failure rate, creating a successful online business is more challenging than ...
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Business
How to Avoid Copyright Infringement Claims
November 6, 2014 • Elizabeth Lewis
Imagine this scenario. You go to your physical mailbox; inside is a certified letter from a law firm that you have never heard of. You open it up, wondering what ...
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Business
5 Ways Smaller Ecommerce Retailers Can Beat Large Ones
November 5, 2014 • Gagan Mehra
Smaller retailers that compete solely on price against large ones, like Amazon, almost always lose. But there are other ways that small retailers can beat Amazon and other large competitors. Here ...
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B2B
Using LinkedIn Publisher for B2B Ecommerce
November 4, 2014 • Paul Chaney
Due to its focus on fostering business-to-business relationships, LinkedIn is a social network that B2B ecommerce companies should use to build brand awareness and establish industry expertise. LinkedIn provides a variety ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
8 ways to attract customers and boost sales
November 4, 2014 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth
With the holiday period underway, you may be looking for ways to win new customers and boost sales. Here are eight ideas to consider adding to your ecommerce site. 1. Bartering.
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Business
6 Ways Ecommerce Is Like American Football
November 3, 2014 • Armando Roggio
Starting and operating an ecommerce business can be a little daunting. What will you sell? How will you sell it? How will you market? Which tax laws apply? It is ...
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Inventory
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Merchant Voice
Wanted: crystal ball for inventory demand
November 2, 2014 • Richard Stubbings
The vast majority of articles and blogs regarding ecommerce focus on selling. They discuss the importance of marketing, search engine optimization, site design and navigation, converting customers, and so on.