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
Selling in Europe? Beware strict consumer protection laws

May 16, 2015 • Richard Stubbings

The world is getting smaller, and ecommerce selling is open to competition worldwide. As such, I am beginning to see more U.S. sellers in the U.K., where I live. However,
Business > Merchant Voice
First 3 weeks of my new business

May 15, 2015 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

After eight months of planning, I launched MyWeddingDecor.com.au on April 23. I founded the business to appeal to Australian couples that seek personalized, unique, and unusual wedding decor. Today, May ...
Business
Lessons from Prison: Satisfy Customers, Follow the Law

May 7, 2015 • Elizabeth Lewis

In “Can Lawsuits Remedy Bad Online Reviews?,” my article last month, I focused on whether lawsuits can remedy bad online reviews of businesses. In the cases that I addressed, there ...
Business
3 Bad Ecommerce Customers You Should Fire

May 6, 2015 • Armando Roggio

Online sellers, including business-to-consumer retailers and business-to-business wholesalers, need to occasionally fire a bad customer, if for no reason other than to benefit good customers. In ecommerce, a bad customer can ...
Finance
Shopify IPO to Value Company at $1 Billion

May 4, 2015 • Marcia Kaplan

Canadian-based ecommerce platform provider Shopify filed for an IPO in the United States and Canada last month hoping to raise $100 million. The valuation is expected to come in at ...
Inventory
How to Set Up Inventory and Fulfillment to Manage Growth

April 27, 2015 • Michael Manzione

Many new ecommerce businesses become overwhelmed with managing inventory and fulfillment. What started in a garage, with little fanfare, now requires more space and more organization. Perhaps the business is ...
Fraud Prevention
25 Online Security Tools for Small Businesses

April 26, 2015 • Sig Ueland

Recent cyber breaches at Target, Sony, and The White House reveal one simple truth: Online security is everyone’s concern. As larger businesses take steps to secure their networks, less secure ...
Amazon & Marketplaces
Amazon Sues Fake Product Review Websites

April 23, 2015 • Marcia Kaplan

Ecommerce merchants know the importance of favorable customer reviews. Results of a 2013 survey of 1,046 American consumers by research firm Dimensional Research show that 90 percent of consumers who ...
Business > Merchant Voice
Mobile friendly, but just barely

April 22, 2015 • Erica Tevis

Google’s long awaited “mobile friendly” algorithm change occurred yesterday, April 21. Sites that weren’t mobile friendly (as determined by Google) presumably experienced a reduction in mobile-search rankings. In this post,
Business
How to Build a Trustworthy Ecommerce Brand

April 22, 2015 • Armando Roggio

When customers trust your business and recognize your brand they will often make repeat purchases, pay a slight premium for your products and tell others about your store. To encourage ...
Shipping & Fulfillment
Drop Shipping: How to Manage Returns

April 16, 2015 • Jeremy Hanks

Drop shipping requires three major data integrations between the retailer and the supplier: product catalog, inventory, and orders. The order integration and workflow culminates with fulfillment and shipment from the ...
Finance
13 New Equity Crowdfunding Success Stories, for Ecommerce

April 16, 2015 • Sig Ueland

It’s been three years since the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act was signed into law. Currently, Title II is in effect, allowing small businesses to solicit investments from accredited ...
Business > Merchant Voice
China-based merchants ship to U.S. for free

April 13, 2015 • David Sasson

As ecommerce leaders and professionals, it is our responsibility to occasionally look at the landscape of the ecommerce industry as well as our specific space within ecommerce and explore potential ...
Local Business
6 Local Business Online Marketing Platforms, Apps

April 13, 2015 • Paul Chaney

For a small business, managing multiple online marketing channels is a complex process that can require a sizable amount of the owner's time and resources. Knowing how to produce content that resonates with customers and prospects, learning the nuances of how various channels work, and understanding the contribution each makes to ROI, only adds to the challenge.
Business > Merchant Voice
7 tips for building your YouTube channel

April 10, 2015 • Jamie Salvatori

My company’s YouTube channel has roughly 1.2 million subscribers. Here are seven pointers that have helped us reach that number. 1. Determine Your Goals for the Channel First, it’s important to decide ...
Business > Merchant Voice
The swift countdown to launching my new site

April 9, 2015 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

Launching a new website takes a lot of preparation and planning. I first addressed my new ecommerce business, My Wedding Decor, back in February, in “Launching my third website business in 15
B2B
B2B Ecommerce Growing; Becoming More Like B2C

April 9, 2015 • Marcia Kaplan

While B2C ecommerce gets the most media attention, B2B ecommerce is the bigger revenue generator, both globally and in the United States. The entry of ecommerce giants such as Alibaba ...
Business
Can Lawsuits Remedy Bad Online Reviews?

April 8, 2015 • Elizabeth Lewis

Yelp.com is no stranger to lawsuits involving libel, defamation, and privacy laws. As Yelp is one of the largest rating sites, a body of case law has started to form ...
Shipping & Fulfillment
How Shipping Methods and Policies Affect Conversions

April 7, 2015 • Pamela Hazelton

Ask any group of online shoppers their top reason for abandoning a shopping cart and they’ll likely refer to shipping. However, it’s not always about the cost of delivery. The way ...
Business
Exactor CEO on Federal Sales Tax Legislation

April 2, 2015 • PEC Staff

The rise of ecommerce has reduced local brick-and-mortar retail sales and the corresponding sales taxes from those transactions — putting states and localities in a revenue bind. A hodgepodge of ...
Business
QuickBooks Online vs. Xero: Which Is Better?

March 30, 2015 • Mac McSwain

Most ecommerce merchants are familiar with QuickBooks and QuickBooks Online. Xero, a hosted accounting platform for small businesses, is less known. As a CPA for small-to-midsized ecommerce companies, I prefer ...
Business
Leading Brick-and-click Retailers Winning in Mobile

March 30, 2015 • Armando Roggio

Large multichannel retailers are using mobile commerce and mobile apps for in-store sales. Although trend-tracking firm comScore recently ranked Amazon and Ebay as the top two mobile-savvy sellers, there is ...
Business > Merchant Voice
From Magento to WooCommerce, part 5

March 27, 2015 • Richard Stubbings

This is the fifth and final installment in a series of posts that describes my disenchantment with Magento and my consideration of WooCommerce as a new platform for my ecommerce ...
Shipping & Fulfillment
How to Manage UPS, FedEx Dimensional Weight Pricing

March 26, 2015 • Michael Manzione

The days of being able to offer free shipping may be coming to an end for many ecommerce merchants. UPS and FedEx have implemented dimensional weight pricing for ground packages ...
Local Business
Pros, Cons of Facebook Local Awareness Ads

March 26, 2015 • Rodney Hess

These days, advertising is almost a necessity when promoting your small business on Facebook. In 2013, the average organic reach of a business page’s post was anywhere between 12 to 16 percent of its total audience — a number that has decreased steadily ever since. A 2014 report from Social@Oglivy found that the number is now closer to six percent.
Business
Supreme Court to Address Ecommerce Sales Tax?

March 25, 2015 • Elizabeth Lewis

Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a closely watched decision in the Colorado “Amazon tax” case, Direct Marketing Association v. Huber. Marketing associations, affiliate marketing groups, online sellers,
Payments
Follow-up: EMV Credit Cards and AmEx OptBlue

March 24, 2015 • Phil Hinke

This is a follow-up to two topics I addressed previously on credit card processing: EMV chip cards and the American Express OptBlue program. I described earlier this year the changes affecting EMV ...
Business
6 Global, Online Shopping Trends that Could Impact Your Business

March 23, 2015 • Armando Roggio

Personalization, videos on product detail pages, and content marketing are among six important online shopping trends that are impacting ecommerce business practices, according to a new study. iVentures Consulting, a management ...
Local Business
13 Local Business ‘About Us’ Pages, to Inspire

March 19, 2015 • Kathleen Fealy

Analytic programs show that the About Us page is one of the most viewed pages on a website, second only to the home page. Below are examples of local business About Us pages intended to inspire you. These pages aren't perfect, but they communicate the story of the company and its owners, engage the consumer in a unique way, and represent the brand or personality of the company.
Shipping & Fulfillment
Drop Shipping: How to Manage Fulfillment

March 18, 2015 • Jeremy Hanks

Recall from my previous posts that drop shipping requires three major data integrations between the retailer and the supplier: product catalog, inventory, and orders. It all culminates with fulfillment and ...