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
Language Translation for Ecommerce: Good and Bad Examples

August 20, 2015 • Gagan Mehra

This is the fourth installment in a 4-part series on language translation for ecommerce sites, following “Language Translation Tools for Ecommerce Sites,” “5 Keys for Building a Global Ecommerce Site,”
Amazon & Marketplaces
Fulfillment by Amazon Necessary for Marketplace Sellers?

August 20, 2015 • James Thomson

Amazon launched Fulfillment by Amazon ten years ago as a mechanism to help sellers scale their fulfillment and customer service operations. Yet, the single most important feature had nothing to do with operational effectiveness,
Shipping & Fulfillment
Life after in-house fulfillment

August 18, 2015 • Kenny Kane

In “My search for a third-party fulfillment company,” I wrote that location, automation, and accommodation were key factors in making my final decision. Once we had penned an agreement that satisfied ...
Shipping & Fulfillment
Drop Shipping: Be Cautious of Automation

August 18, 2015 • Jeremy Hanks

The primary benefit of drop shipping for retailers is the ability to access merchandise without incurring physical inventory carrying costs. It also enables suppliers to open new channels or penetrate existing ...
Local Business
Google Local Search Updates Could Affect Your Ranking

August 17, 2015 • Paul Chaney

Google just made a series of updates that have bearing on how well local businesses appear in search results. Here's a rundown of the changes and how they could affect your ranking.
Business
Trademark Infringement from Search Subject of Amazon Lawsuit

August 10, 2015 • Elizabeth Lewis

Several lawsuits have made headlines over the past few years regarding the use of trademarked phrases in search ads against those that sell the ads (see Rosetta Stone Ltd. v.
Finance
Ecommerce Attracts Investors, Becomes More International

August 6, 2015 • Marcia Kaplan

Ecommerce continues to be a favored investment for venture capitalists — with a strong showing in the second quarter of 2015. While in the past American ecommerce firms were the ...
Local Business
8 Mobile App-building Platforms for Local Business Use

August 3, 2015 • Paul Chaney

The rapid rise of mobile device use has forced local businesses to rethink their marketing strategy to include mobile-optimized websites, mobile advertising, and mobile-enabled customer loyalty programs.
Business
A Random (8-year) Walk in Ecommerce

August 3, 2015 • Michael Manzione

For eight years I’ve held executive positions with third-party ecommerce fulfillment companies — functioning as intermediaries between merchants and customers. It’s a unique perspective, as I’m able to see what ...
Business > Merchant Voice
How I implement new ecommerce ideas

July 31, 2015 • David Sasson

I often take time during the workweek to think about new ideas and to look for new trends that can affect our company — positively or negatively. Sometimes the new ...
Business > Merchant Voice
Selling on multiple channels creates headaches

July 30, 2015 • Richard Stubbings

Many ecommerce retailers are finding it difficult to compete by selling solely on their own sites. Many have started listing their inventory on other sites, such as Amazon and Ebay ...
Business > Merchant Voice
How 10 Shopify apps have impacted my sales

July 30, 2015 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

I have installed 15 apps from the Shopify store since launching My Wedding Decor in late April. Here I examine the impact of 10 of those apps on my sales. Quantity ...
Shipping & Fulfillment
My search for a third-party fulfillment company

July 22, 2015 • Kenny Kane

I can’t help but reflect on this time last year as one of my greatest ecommerce successes. The Stupid Cancer store had rounded a corner of success that there was ...
Business
Shoppers Turn to Small Online Retailers for Unique, Hard-to-find Items

July 22, 2015 • Armando Roggio

When online shoppers cannot find niche products at big box stores or large ecommerce shops, they seek out small Internet retailers. Online stores like Amazon and Walmart carry thousands of products. These and similar massive online retailers
Amazon & Marketplaces
7 Common Mistakes of New Amazon Sellers

July 21, 2015 • James Thomson

It’s easy for new Amazon sellers to get caught up in the excitement of 240 million shoppers. But, while Amazon recruits more than 100,000 new sellers each year to the ...
Payments
Credit Card Processing: Detailed Statements Essential for Merchants

July 20, 2015 • Phil Hinke

I presented a Practical Ecommerce webinar last month on lowering merchant processing costs. I’ve received several questions since then regarding my views on processing statements. Therefore, I want to address ...
Shipping & Fulfillment
Drop Shipping: 5 Tactics of Successful Retailers

July 19, 2015 • Jeremy Hanks

In "Drop Shipping for Ecommerce, Part 2: The Basics," I explained that one of the challenges with drop shipping is sellers believe it will be easy to implement. It sort of oversells itself, in fact. Think of the powerful terms that are often used to describe it: “Inventory Free Retail,” “Endless Aisle.”
Business
Language Translation: Machines vs. Humans

July 15, 2015 • Gagan Mehra

This is my third article in a series on operating an ecommerce business in multiple countries. In “Language Translation Tools for Ecommerce Sites,” I reviewed various translation platforms and services.
Cross-border Selling
Canada: Opportunity for U.S., U.K. Ecommerce Merchants?

July 9, 2015 • Marcia Kaplan

Canada is the top choice of 84 percent of U.S. merchants who sell cross-border, according to the 2014 Multichannel Merchant Outlook report. Obvious advantages are a common language (most of ...
Business > Merchant Voice
What drives ecommerce sales?

July 8, 2015 • David Sasson

Presumably all online retailers want to increase sales. I know we do at overstockArt.com. I came to the office on a recent Monday and, as usual, I checked our sales from ...
Business
Free and Easy Returns Build Customer Loyalty

July 8, 2015 • Armando Roggio

Shoppers have generally come to expect online stores to offer returns, refunds, and exchanges for items that are defective, damaged, or otherwise not as expected. And when retailers don’t have ...
Business
5 Keys for Building a Global Ecommerce Site

July 7, 2015 • Gagan Mehra

In “Language Translation Tools for Ecommerce Sites,” my post in June, I described translation tools for different types of ecommerce platforms. But building a global site often requires more than ...
Business
Proposed U.S. Overtime Rules Bad for Small Businesses?

July 7, 2015 • Elizabeth Lewis

There has been much talk recently about the proposed federal rules in the U.S. regarding overtime pay. Many observers are confused about exactly who would be entitled to overtime and ...
Amazon & Marketplaces
6 Things to Love About eBay Product Pages

July 3, 2015 • Armando Roggio

Founded in 1995, eBay is one of the original ecommerce pioneers. So it would stand to reason that as eBay has gone from startup to earning more than $17.9 billion ...
Inventory
SKU Management Ensures Inventory Profits

July 1, 2015 • Michael Manzione

SKU management is the process of analyzing the cost of carrying each inventory item to ensure it is meeting the financial objectives of the business. If your business is virtual and ...
Business
How to Serve Empowered Ecommerce Shoppers

June 30, 2015 • Armando Roggio

Online retailers are doing business in the era of empowered shoppers. This competitive environment pits massive omnichannel retail enterprises against even the smallest of family-run, garage-based sellers. Shopping has fundamentally changed ...
Fraud Prevention
18 Online Security Resources for Small Businesses

June 29, 2015 • Sig Ueland

Recently, cybersecurity company FireEye announced a partnership with Visa to develop products and services for merchants, as well as card issuers, to detect and respond to attacks. The announcement underscores ...
Amazon & Marketplaces
5 Tradeoffs for Selling on Amazon

June 23, 2015 • James Thomson

For six years I worked for Amazon, most recently as head of Amazon Services, that part of Amazon that recruits 100,000 new sellers to the Amazon marketplace each year. During my tenure, feedback ...
Business
APIs Bring Ecommerce to Any Page, Service

June 22, 2015 • Armando Roggio

Application programming interfaces (APIs) from payment processors and service providers make it possible, if not easy, to bring ecommerce to essentially any page or any service. Often the first thing that ...
Business
Balancing ecommerce profits with a nonprofit mission

June 18, 2015 • Kenny Kane

In “Using ecommerce to support cancer survivors,” my last post, I discussed how Stupid Cancer launched an online store, and ultimately, a lifestyle brand. Since its inception in 2012, the ...