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
How to Determine When to Sell Your Ecommerce Business

September 30, 2013 • Manish Shah

It’s easy to forget now, but Michael Dell was the Mark Zuckerberg of his day. Hailed as a young genius, he created the inexpensive, made-to-order personal computer in his University of ...
Business
September 2013 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts

September 30, 2013 • PEC Staff

Each month we compile a list of the 10 most popular articles we published that month, based on the number of page views. Here are our ten most popular articles ...
Amazon & Marketplaces
Alibaba User Experience Director on Design, Usability

September 27, 2013 • PEC Staff

The appearance and functionality of an ecommerce site affects its sales. Is the site attractive? Is it easy to navigate? Do core functions work? Is it fast? Does it render ...
Business
U.S. Proposes ADA Compliance for Public Websites

September 24, 2013 • Marcia Kaplan

When Congress enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, the public Internet did not exist. Over the past 23 years, making the Internet accessible to those with disabilities ...
Business > Merchant Voice
Adding a wedding category could produce extra sales — and headaches

September 23, 2013 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

You may think you can’t tap into the wedding market if you don’t sell venues, honeymoons, caterers, dresses, hair and make-up, invitations, flowers, cars, jewelry, cake, nor entertainment. However, there could ...
Business
Robust User Experience May Unlock Mobile Commerce

September 20, 2013 • Armando Roggio

Online sales from mobile devices are expected to exceed $41 billion in the United States this year, representing a significant opportunity for online sellers who are able to provide a ...
Business > Merchant Voice
Sell banner advertising? Yeah. Sell banner advertising.

September 19, 2013 • Jamie Salvatori

You should sell ads on your e-commerce site. I’ve yet to find evidence that putting banner advertising on your e-commerce site to be a bad thing. I know it sounds counter ...
Payments
Avoid No-detail Credit Card Processing Statements

September 19, 2013 • Phil Hinke

I have addressed the importance of understanding credit card processing statements in previous articles. However, I’ve recently seen statements with little or minimal detail that make it virtually impossible to ...
Business
Lessons Learned: Specialist ID Identifies a Niche

September 19, 2013 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

Bartenders frequently ask young patrons to prove they’re over 21 to obtain liquor service. But there’s probably only one ex-bartender who has created a million-dollar business out of legitimate photo ...
Business
Top 5 Mistakes Ecommerce Owners Make When Selling their Businesses

September 12, 2013 • Manish Shah

Recently I stumbled upon an article on Entrepreneur.com titled “10 Mistakes to Avoid When Selling Your Business.” I found myself relating to five of them, from my own experiences brokering ...
Local Business
Reverse Showrooming: Pinterest Helps Brick-and-mortar Retailers

September 12, 2013 • Marcia Kaplan

When consumers began using the sophisticated features of their smartphones to do price comparisons and make online purchases while browsing the aisles of stores, panic set in among brick-and-mortar retailers.
Inventory
7 Tips for Good Supplier Relationships

September 11, 2013 • Armando Roggio

Good supplier relationships may lead to favorable prices, generous terms, improved availability, and even the occasional buyback. With these sorts of opportunities at stake, it can be very important for ...
Business
A Matter of Trust (Part 1)

September 10, 2013 • Jordan Lindberg

“I believe fundamental honesty is the keystone of business.” – Harvey S. Firestone. Years ago I had the good fortune to be able to take a two-day seminar in Chicago on ...
Business
Managing the Gross Margin of your Ecommerce Business

September 10, 2013 • Dale Traxler

The gross margin calculation of sales minus cost of goods sold is a fundamental key performance indicator of any business that sells products. It measures the profit generated from each ...
Fraud Prevention
Apple Fingerprint Scanner May Boost Mobile Commerce

September 9, 2013 • Armando Roggio

Next generation smartphones or tablets equipped with fingerprint scanners may provide shoppers with greater security and boost both online and in-store mobile commerce. Leading mobile device makers Apple and Samsung are ...
Amazon & Marketplaces
Alibaba Attorney on Intellectual Property Theft

September 5, 2013 • PEC Staff

Most every ecommerce company owns intellectual property — photos, product descriptions, logos, brand names, designs. Many online companies have experienced the theft of their intellectual property from other websites, often ...
Cross-border Selling
6 Tips for Selling on Marketplaces this Holiday Season

September 5, 2013 • Armando Roggio

Marketplaces like eBay, Rakuten, and Amazon attract millions of eager shoppers during the holiday season. Online retailers, even small ones, can post products to these marketplaces and earn many additional ...
Business
The Commerce EvRolution, Part 3: Smaller Merchants

September 4, 2013 • Dale Traxler

Editor’s note: This is “Part 3″ of a three-part series on how the mobile revolution is affecting ecommerce. “Part 1: Shopping Trends” and “Part 2: Channel Trends” we published previously. In ...
Business
‘Ecom Hell’ Author on Starting an Ecommerce Business

September 4, 2013 • PEC Staff

For prospective merchants that think starting an ecommerce business is easy, Shirley Tan disagrees. She has the experience to disagree, having founded her first ecommerce site in the 1990s, which ...
Business
The Commerce EvRolution, Part 2: Channel Trends

August 30, 2013 • Dale Traxler

In my previous article, I introduced the term "EvRolution," where mobile devices and applications are revolutionizing commerce. Retailers are rapidly evolving their strategies and technologies to keep up with the shift in consumer shopping and buying.
Business
August 2013 Top 10: Our Most Popular Posts

August 30, 2013 • PEC Staff

Each month we compile a list of the 10 most popular articles we published that month, based on the number of page views. Here are our ten most popular articles ...
Business
Improving Customer Service with Big Data

August 29, 2013 • Gagan Mehra

Customer service is key for ecommerce businesses. If retailers could improve customer service while also reducing its cost, they would likely do it. Big data can help achieve this goal ...
Business
4 Reasons to Think About Brand

August 28, 2013 • Armando Roggio

Developing a brand for a small ecommerce store may help otherwise hurried and busy entrepreneurs and managers do a better job of managing the business, engaging customers and potential customers,
Business
The Commerce EvRolution, Part 1: Shopping Trends

August 27, 2013 • Dale Traxler

Did I just make up a word, EvRolution? Why not. Technologists and marketers have been doing it for years. We’ve come up with ecommerce, m-commerce, and t-commerce to describe online ...
Business > Merchant Voice
Content is King and Time is Your Queen

August 23, 2013 • Jamie Salvatori

In your business, you must focus on two things: content and time. They are both equally important and inextricably intertwined. Great content will never go out of style. Seriously, there’s a ...
Payments
Latest Court Decision on Debit Card Processing Fees

August 22, 2013 • Phil Hinke

On July 31, 2013 U.S. District Judge Richard Leon sided with retailers and rejected the debit interchange rate cap set by Federal Reserve under the Durbin Amendment in 2011. The ...
Business
Lessons Learned: Entrepreneur not Resting on his Bed Linens

August 19, 2013 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

Unlike many entrepreneurs, Gabriel Luis does not have parents who own a business. His mother is a bank manager and his father is a mail courier. But Luis was born ...
Business
10 Things I Would Do Differently in my Ecommerce Business

August 16, 2013 • Dale Traxler

After I sold my business last year, I wrote a series of articles on the importance of developing an ecommerce strategy. I’ve written over 70 articles since then, addressing best ...
Cross-border Selling
Cross Border Ecommerce Booming

August 13, 2013 • Marcia Kaplan

As populous countries such as Brazil, China, and India develop increasingly acquisitive middle classes, opportunities for online sales to these countries are growing. Except for small mom and pop outlets, the brick and mortar retail sectors are poorly developed outside of major cities. ...
Finance
eCommerce Business Valuation Case Studies : Effect of Inventory on Valuation Multiple

August 12, 2013 • Manish Shah

In this series, I will share my experiences selling online businesses for my clients and lessons learned. Effect of Inventory on eCommerce Business Valuation Multiple Some time ago I was selling an eCommerce business that had a large amount of inventory that needed to be sold with the...