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.

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 ...
Business > Merchant Voice
9 tips for working with suppliers

June 16, 2015 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

I launched my third ecommerce venture, My Wedding Decor, in April. Since then, I have been working with over 40 wedding-product suppliers. Here’s what I’ve learned so far. 1. Maintain your ...
Business
Language Translation Tools for Ecommerce Sites

June 16, 2015 • Gagan Mehra

The Internet has made it easier to sell products and services worldwide. But easy access without an engaging customer experience cannot guarantee sales. Presenting site content in a local language ...
Business > Merchant Voice
Fast Internet connection creates internal network glitches

June 15, 2015 • Richard Stubbings

Many articles about ecommerce address customer-facing issues, such as website design, search engine optimization, content, marketing, and order fulfillment. One often-ignored topic is the basic hardware required —the internal network ...
Business
How to Buy a Small Ecommerce Business on Flippa

June 15, 2015 • Armando Roggio

Flippa is a leading marketplace for buying and selling websites, including active online stores, those with established site traffic, revenue, and profit. One of the sites available at auction on Flippa at the ...
Business
How to Protect Against Credit Card Chargebacks

June 9, 2015 • Elizabeth Lewis

Ecommerce business owners dread credit card chargebacks. It often takes just one chargeback for a merchant to question her procedures, to stop another one from happening. Luckily, if you prepare ...
Inventory
Inventory Labeling Basics: SKUs, UPCs, EANs

May 27, 2015 • Michael Manzione

The barcode was first scanned in 1974, on a packet of Juicy Fruit gum. Since then, the technology used in scanning products in the retail marketplace has become commonplace. In ...
Payments
Beware Hidden Increases from Credit Card Providers

May 26, 2015 • Phil Hinke

The fact that some credit card providers periodically sneak in cost increases to their merchants isn’t new. The providers often do this with a notice like this to their merchants:
Business
Using ecommerce to support cancer survivors

May 22, 2015 • Kenny Kane

In March 2012, I decided it was time for Stupid Cancer, the nonprofit I co-founded, to move beyond CafePress and open our own online store. We had previously been offering ...
Shipping & Fulfillment
Ecommerce Shipping Innovations Just Over Horizon?

May 22, 2015 • Armando Roggio

How orders are delivered to ecommerce shoppers might change dramatically in just the next few years as retailers and carriers come up with ways to reduce shipping costs and speed ...
Shipping & Fulfillment
Drop Shipping: How to Manage Invoices

May 21, 2015 • Jeremy Hanks

Drop shipping requires three major data integrations between the retailer and the supplier: product catalog, inventory, and orders. The final step in the drop shipping process occurs when the supplier ...
Business > Merchant Voice
Secret sauce for an ecommerce supply chain

May 18, 2015 • David Sasson

I recently spoke at a conference regarding supply chain collaboration. As I was preparing my presentation, it occurred to me that ecommerce companies can greatly benefit from improving their supply ...
B2B
B2B Ecommerce Success Starts in the Boardroom

May 18, 2015 • Dale Traxler

Business-to-business ecommerce revenue in the U.S., at $780 billion in 2015, is roughly twice the size of B2C, according to Forrester Research. But that amount represents less than 10 percent ...