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
3 Ways to Harness Big Data, for Ecommerce

September 10, 2014 • Jerry Jao

The use of Big Data by ecommerce companies is increasingly common. To stay competitive, many companies, especially larger ones, use extensive datasets to better understand their customers and provide services,
Business > Merchant Voice
Theory of Constraints, for ecommerce companies

September 8, 2014 • David Sasson

Two or three years ago, in October, I left the office in the middle of the day and went to Starbucks to have a cup of coffee and think about ...
Business
Lessons Learned: Million-dollar Jeweler Launched with $300

September 8, 2014 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

Robin Weber started his jewelry website when he was 18, with $300 from selling his high school textbooks and from tutoring classmates. He now runs a multi-million dollar business. In 1996,
Business
How to Create an Ecommerce Privacy Policy

September 2, 2014 • Elizabeth Lewis

Over the past few years, a series of stories have hit the press regarding online privacy — the biggest being about Edward Snowden and the NSA. However, smaller stories that ...
Business > Merchant Voice
Should merchants accept Bitcoin?

September 1, 2014 • Jamie Salvatori

I was recently asked if ecommerce merchants should accept Bitcoin. My answer is a resounding “yes.” I can think of only a few minor downsides and many major upsides to ...
Business > Merchant Voice
11 ecommerce SEO tips, from the trenches

August 31, 2014 • Erica Tevis

If you are a small ecommerce business owner, chances are your budget is limited for areas such as advertising, search engine optimization, email marketing, and website design. I’ve been in ...
Business
Lessons Learned: MyFootShop.com Renewed by Tech Incubator

August 28, 2014 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

Jeff Oster’s friends thought he was mad to give away health care information for free when he launched his podiatry website in 1999. This was at a time when the ...
Local Business
Google’s AdWords Express Helps Manage Local Campaigns

August 22, 2014 • Melih Oztalay

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by Web Marketing Today. Practical Ecommerce acquired Web Marketing Today in 2012. In 2016, we merged the two sites, leaving Practical Ecommerce as ...
Business
4 Predictions for the 2014 Holiday Shopping Season

August 20, 2014 • Armando Roggio

Mobile commerce, free shipping offers, in-store pickup promotions, and ecommerce videos will all be important trends for the 2014 Christmas shopping season, as small and mid-sized online retailers look forward ...
B2B
B2B Ecommerce: Overcoming Conflict with Sales Teams

August 19, 2014 • Dale Traxler

When online retail took off roughly 10 years ago, many manufacturers and distributors were resistant about opening an online store. There were many reasons for this then, and now, including ...
Payments
American Express OptBlue: Understanding Processing Rates

August 18, 2014 • Phil Hinke

In “American Express OptBlue Program May Reduce Processing Cost,” my article last month, I explained American Express’s new program called OptBlue. This program should lower the American Express processing cost ...
Business
Collecting Data Responsibly from Ecommerce Shoppers

August 18, 2014 • Jerry Jao

Collecting data from customers requires sensitivity. While analyzing that data largely involves using calculations and algorithms to spot trends and generate insights, retailers that do it also need to be ...
Shipping & Fulfillment
Drop Shipping for Ecommerce, Part 2: The Basics

August 15, 2014 • Jeremy Hanks

My article last month, “Drop Shipping for Ecommerce, Part 1: Supply Chain History,” was the first in a series about drop shipping as an ecommerce supply management technique. What Is Drop ...
Business > Merchant Voice
13 tips for launching a new ecommerce business

August 14, 2014 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

If you’re planning to launch a new ecommerce business, you need to think ahead, save money, and make it profitable as soon as possible. I’ve launched two ecommerce sites, and I’ll ...
Amazon & Marketplaces
ShopRunner Joins Forces with Alibaba to Sell in China

August 14, 2014 • Marcia Kaplan

When I last wrote about ShopRunner two years ago, the company’s main marketing pitch was its free two-day shipping and free returns with a $79 annual membership or an $8.95
Business
Google’s Domain Registration Service Can Help Small Businesses

August 12, 2014 • Armando Roggio

Only about 45 percent of small businesses have a website. Those businesses without a website aren’t attracting customers online and may be stifling their own growth. In response, the leading ...
Business
Could These 5 Technologies Change Ecommerce?

August 11, 2014 • Armando Roggio

Five emerging technologies could change ecommerce in just the next few years, giving shoppers new access to products and the ability to customize some items for their particular needs. Mobile computing,
Finance
Berkery Noyes Exec on State of Ecommerce Mergers, Acquisitions

August 8, 2014 • PEC Staff

Every day, it seems, we read of an Internet-based company acquiring another one, or raising capital, or expanding into a new segment. Mergers and acquisitions for Internet companies are booming.
Business
How to Register a Trademark, Part 2: Protecting Registration

August 4, 2014 • Elizabeth Lewis

In “How to Register a Trademark, Part 1: Determine Availability,” my article last month, I addressed how you could lose your trademark due to improper filings before your trademark is ...
Staffing
10 Tools to Research Ecommerce Employee Pay

August 4, 2014 • Sig Ueland

You’ve grown your ecommerce business so much that now you need full-time employees. But how much should you pay your new employees? Here is a list of tools and resources to ...
Business
July 2014 Top Ten: Our Most Popular Posts

July 31, 2014 • PEC Staff

Each month we compile a list of the ten most popular articles we published that month, based on the number of page views. Here are our ten most popular articles ...
Business
5 Things to Do When Ecommerce Goes Wrong

July 31, 2014 • Armando Roggio

Things will go wrong. It is a fact of life for small and mid-sized ecommerce businesses. But it is not the end of the world, and there are things you ...
Business > Merchant Voice
Identify your target customers, and market to them

July 30, 2014 • Erica Tevis

A friend moved to Europe last month and launched, with her fiancé, a business aimed at teaching locals the English language. She messaged me and asked for advice on the ...
Local Business
Ultimate Guide to Using Instagram for your Local Business

July 28, 2014 • Kunle Campbell

Instagram is an image-based social network that was started in 2010 and acquired by Facebook in 2012. It’s seen rapid growth since its inception, picking up a million users in its first two months. It now claims about 200 million members, a 23 percent growth in 2013 alone. Roughly 60 million photos are shared daily on Instagram.
Business
12 Keys to a World-class Ecommerce Company

July 28, 2014 • Dale Traxler

What makes any company stand out from the crowd? Is it the products? Customer service? Profitability? Growth? Something else? Many observers would answer all of the above and likely add other ...
Business
4 Reasons to Consider Order Management Software

July 25, 2014 • Armando Roggio

Ecommerce and retail order management systems help merchants improve order processing, track inventory, sell in online marketplaces, and much more. Every online retail business — ecommerce or brick-and-click — will have ...
Shipping & Fulfillment
Drop Shipping for Ecommerce, Part 1: Supply Chain History

July 24, 2014 • Jeremy Hanks

To fully address the good and the bad of drop shipping as a supply management technique, I'm going to start with the history and current state of the retail supply chain.
Business
LemonStand CEO on Starting an Ecommerce Business

July 24, 2014 • PEC Staff

Starting a new ecommerce business can be frustrating, complicated, and risky. LemonStand is a popular ecommerce platform that often caters to startups and new entrepreneurs. LemonStand’s CEO, Danny Halarewich, recently spoke ...
Business
Lessons Learned: Fashion Retailer Adds Ecommerce to Physical Locations

July 23, 2014 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

A third generation “rag trader,” Daylan James grew up in Melbourne, Australia but didn’t originally want to enter his family’s fashion business. After studying philosophy, visual arts, and marketing at Monash University ...
Business
An End to Net Neutrality Could Impact Ecommerce

July 23, 2014 • Armando Roggio

An inability to regulate some of the Internet’s most basic infrastructure could, in theory, make it more difficult for small and mid-sized retailers to compete in the near future. A Federal ...