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
Lessons Learned: Entrepreneur Overcomes Penguin Update, Prospers

May 28, 2014 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

Many men forget their partner’s birthday. But after London-born Jignesh Ghaghada upset his girlfriend by doing this, he created gift website TreatHer.com. Ghaghada grew up in West Africa, watching with fascination ...
Business
Brand Manufacturers All In for Ecommerce

May 27, 2014 • Dale Traxler

I attended the “IRCE Focus: Brands & B2B” conference in New York last week. There were many presentations that covered both B-to-B and direct-to-consumer ecommerce strategies that are being used ...
Business
4 Ways Ecommerce Merchants Misuse Data

May 22, 2014 • Jerry Jao

The use of customer data can help you make smarter decisions that can improve your store, enhance the shopper experience, and increase conversions. When used incorrectly, however, data can waste ...
Shipping & Fulfillment
Pros and Cons of UPS SurePost, FedEx SmartPost

May 20, 2014 • Christopher Bosdal

If you are looking to save money on shipping, start with a call to your UPS or FedEx representative. Speak with her about UPS SurePost or FedEx SmartPost. These are ...
Business
Driving B-to-B Ecommerce with Personas

May 19, 2014 • Dale Traxler

In “Ecommerce Key for Manufacturers and Distributors,” I addressed some of the challenges that manufacturers and distributors face as they grow their ecommerce operations. In this article, I’ll explore the ...
Amazon & Marketplaces
6 Tips for Making Money on Etsy

May 16, 2014 • Armando Roggio

Etsy is a marketplace for crafts, art, and vintage items that empowers home-based entrepreneurs, collectors, and handicraft makers to sell their products to an audience of millions. But like any ...
Payments
How to Identify Dubious Credit Card Processing Fees, Part 3

May 15, 2014 • Phil Hinke

Editor’s Note: This is “Part 3” of a three-part series. “Part 1” and “Part 2” we published previously. The purpose of this series is to educate merchants on questionable credit ...
Amazon & Marketplaces
Alibaba IPO Likely Largest in U.S.; Analysis

May 15, 2014 • Marcia Kaplan

The Alibaba Group, the Chinese ecommerce juggernaut founded in 1999, is likely to become the largest U.S. IPO of all time. The company earlier this month filed papers to begin ...
Business
Using the BCG Matrix for Ecommerce Marketing Decisions

May 14, 2014 • Armando Roggio

Designed to analyze product lines, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix or growth-share matrix can help ecommerce business owners and marketers decide which products or product categories will likely generate ...
Business
Selling customer service

May 8, 2014 • Jordan Lindberg

“Your personal core values define who you are, and a company’s core values ultimately define the company’s character and brand. For individuals, character is destiny. For organizations, culture is destiny.”
Business > Merchant Voice
How to win a price war

May 8, 2014 • Richard Stubbings

As the Internet continues to grow, and more consumers are becoming web savvy, ecommerce sales likewise increase. It is inevitable that many (indeed most) shoppers are driven by price. They ...
Payments
Should Ecommerce Merchants Accept Bitcoin?

May 7, 2014 • Marcia Kaplan

Bitcoin, the best known of several virtual payment currencies, has made inroads into mainstream commerce, including brick-and-mortar retailers. Some ecommerce sites are already accepting Bitcoin and if you are considering ...
Business > Merchant Voice
You’ll always lose a price war

May 6, 2014 • Jamie Salvatori

Competing on price is a stupid tactic because it’s easy. Any idiot can undercut his competitors. Making money with this tactic, however, is rare. Only a few companies can pull ...
Business > Merchant Voice
Digging for gold: supply chain made simple

May 6, 2014 • David Sasson

During the gold rush of the 1800s, prospectors chased each other to find gold nuggets in rivers and mines all over the west. They were all chasing gold and the ...
B2B
Ecommerce Key for Manufacturers and Distributors

May 5, 2014 • Dale Traxler

Many B-to-B companies are still not aggressively pursuing ecommerce. Most have an online presence — in fact, an extensive one. They likely have a corporate site, an online product catalog,
Shipping & Fulfillment
How to Choose an Ecommerce Shipping Provider

April 29, 2014 • Gagan Mehra

Many merchants struggle with the challenge of shipping goods in the fastest and cheapest manner. There are several variables that determine the best shipping provider for each order. These include ...
Business > Merchant Voice
12 tips to address declining ecommerce revenue

April 29, 2014 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

For many online retailers, business conditions are tough. What do you do when your sales are dropping and you can’t work out how to reverse the slide? Here are 12
Payments
How to Identify Dubious Credit Card Processing Fees, Part 2

April 23, 2014 • Phil Hinke

Editor’s Note: This is “Part 2” of a three-part series. “Part 1” we published last month. The purpose of this series is to identify dubious fees that are commonly charged ...
Business
Lessons Learned: Buddhist Search Inspires Lotus Sculpture

April 22, 2014 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

In the novel Siddhartha, author Hermann Hesse describes the spiritual journey of a man who meets Gautama Buddha in ancient India. Six years after reading Siddhartha in seventh grade, Greenwich, Conn.-born ...
Finance
18 Ecommerce Crowdfunding Success Stories

April 21, 2014 • Sig Ueland

In “9 Equity Crowdfunding Sites to Finance your Business,” my article last week, I outlined leading crowdfunding sites that offer equity stakes in startups and small businesses. As a result ...
Business
Recap of selling an ecommerce business

April 17, 2014 • Manish Shah

Every time I sell an ecommerce business, I write an internal summary with highlights of that deal. This includes statistics like: Asking price vs. selling price; Terms offered vs. terms negotiated between ...
Finance
9 Equity Crowdfunding Sites to Finance your Business

April 14, 2014 • Sig Ueland

Thanks to the JOBS Act, startups and small businesses can now publicly raise equity funding via online crowdfunding sites. In September 2013, Title II of the JOBS Act went into ...
Amazon & Marketplaces
SEO: Why Amazon’s Navigation Works So Well

April 11, 2014 • Jill Kocher Brown

Judging by the number of Google searches for which Amazon ranks, it’s easy to see that Amazon is doing a lot right when it comes to search engine optimization. It’s ...
Business
Heartbleed Bug Impacts Online Retailers, Ecommerce

April 10, 2014 • Armando Roggio

The so-called Heartbleed bug is a serious flaw in some versions of popular, open-source security software used to protect encrypted data like passwords or payment card information during online transactions.
Finance
Ecommerce Companies Raise Funds with New Approach

April 9, 2014 • Marcia Kaplan

Will equity crowdfunding ever become a reality? This alternative to the usual financing mechanisms became legal two years ago when Congress passed the Jobs Act in April 2012. However, the ...
Business > Merchant Voice
Growing an ecommerce company starts with ‘why’

April 4, 2014 • David Sasson

Business leaders speak about programs to improve customer satisfaction. However, we all deal with companies that leave us mostly dissatisfied. It’s rare that we have an experience, as consumers, that ...
Business
7 Ways to Protect Ecommerce Customer Data

April 4, 2014 • Jerry Jao

One of the biggest mistakes that small ecommerce merchants make with data security is assuming that they’re too insignificant to be targeted by hackers. This simply isn’t true. According to Verizon’s ...
Business > Merchant Voice
Are you really improving your site with this recommendation?

April 3, 2014 • Richard Stubbings

Across the Internet in forums and indeed on this site there is plenty of advice regarding how to improve your ecommerce business. Whilst all advice is offered with the best intentions,
Business
March 2014 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts

April 2, 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
The real costs of starting a web store

March 30, 2014 • Jordan Lindberg

There are many ways to get an ecommerce store off the ground. Among the most common is using a SaaS platform, such as Volusion, Magento, Shopify, Bigcommerce, or 3dcart.