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
The New USPS.com: 5 Sections, Free Stuff

August 26, 2011 • Sig Ueland

The U.S. Postal Service has redesigned USPS.com to make it faster and easier to do business. The site is organized into five sections: Ship a Package, Send Mail, Manage Your Mail, Shop, and Business Solutions. Each section is organized by what you want to do and features a Quick Tools m...
Finance
How to Choose a Business Credit Card, Part 1

August 25, 2011 • Marcia Kaplan

Unhappy with your current business credit card? Cheer up. As a business owner you have many choices. But a card that is right for one business may not be advantageous for another. Cash flow, credit rating, and the amount of business travel can influence your choice of cards. This is "...
Business
Types of eCommerce Business Buyers

August 23, 2011 • Manish Shah

Different buyers pay different Prices. Buyers can be categorized into four broad groups. It is very important to understand the differences between them, how they think and how to identify them to have a successful Exit Strategy. If you carefully study these buyer types, you will find ...
Business > Merchant Voice
How to Make Your Customer Service Shine

August 19, 2011 • Jamie Salvatori

As a small e-commerce store, you can’t compete against the big boys in many arenas. However, one arena where you can outduel them in is customer service. By definition, you are a specialist in your product category and therefore should be an expert in all things that you sell. You can...
Finance
Will the S&P Downgrade Affect Smaller Ecommerce Businesses?

August 18, 2011 • Marcia Kaplan

The downgrading of U.S. creditworthiness from AAA to AA+ by Standard and Poor's has dominated the news over the past two weeks. Since 1941, the U.S. credit rating has been AAA — the highest rating — denoting a safe investment. While S&P's action will doubtless have repercussions,...
Payments
21 Bitcoin Currency Resources

August 17, 2011 • Sig Ueland

Bitcoin is the first decentralized digital currency. Unlike other virtual currencies—like Facebook credits, for instance—it is not run by a company or organization, nor pegged to another currency. Bitcoins are digital coins you can send through the Internet, without using a bank or cl...
Business
5 Planning Tips for Physical Retailers to Migrate Online

August 16, 2011 • PEC Staff

As physical, brick-and-mortar retailers contemplate the online marketplace, they should consider their online stores in the same sense as if they were building another physical location. While it probably won’t be nearly as expensive to begin selling online as it is to build another phy...
Finance
How to Find Venture Capital Investors For Your Company

August 12, 2011 • Marcia Kaplan

If you have a great idea for a start-up — or if you have an existing business that needs money to grow — the main options are to borrow from friends and family, borrow from a bank, or seek equity funding from a venture capital firm. Banks are skittish about lending to small businesses i...
Payments
Understanding Credit Card Fees, Part 4: The Merchant Statement – Per Item Fees

August 11, 2011 • Phil Hinke

This article is "Part 4" in a series where I help you understand your debit and credit card fees. In last month’s installment — "Understanding Credit Card Fees, Part 3: Punitive Interchange Rates" — I explained how to decode your merchant statement to distinguish the actual interchange...
Business
PCI Council Exec on Criticisms of Security Standards

August 10, 2011 • PEC Staff

The major credit card brands of Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover have adopted standards to protect consumers' credit card data. The standards are self-regulation — not government law — by those companies, which have also created an organization to administer it all. Tha...
Finance
Does the SEC Fail Small Internet Businesses?

August 5, 2011 • Marcia Kaplan

As retailing migrates online, an increasing number of ecommerce and Internet business will seek to raise public capital. Many of them will be smaller companies. But a growing number of observers believe the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is failing smaller businesses and In...
Business
Innovators: 3 Unusual Ecommerce Models

August 4, 2011 • PEC Staff

In the ecommerce business, there are innovators and trendsetters, those companies and individuals who think ahead and produce changes. We've asked an expert ecommerce observer to help us identify some of these companies and individuals. The observer is Harley Finkelstein, chief platform...
Business
Selling on Amazon: Pros and Cons

August 2, 2011 • Charles Nicholls

The Harry Potter franchise of ebooks will not be depending on Amazon. Author J.K. Rowling has teamed up with Sony to launch a direct outlet, called Pottermore. If you’re in the ecommerce business, and have ambition, then perhaps like J.K. Rowling, you shouldn’t rely on Amazon. But if...
Finance
Need Funding for Your Company? Look Online

July 29, 2011 • Marcia Kaplan

It used to be that if you wanted capital for your business, whether a loan or equity investment, you had to prepare lots of Excel spreadsheets, put on a suit and tie or a dress, and spend an uncomfortable amount of time being grilled by potential funders. Today all that is unnecessary t...
Finance
California Joins the Internet Sales Tax Fray; Federal Legislation Coming?

July 21, 2011 • Marcia Kaplan

The Internet sales tax issue continues to roil, with California the most recent state to enact a bill mandating that out-of-state online retailers with affiliates in the state collect state sales tax. Amazon and Overstock immediately responded by cutting off their affiliates in Californ...
Business > Merchant Voice
Mistakes I Wish I Had Never Made

July 20, 2011 • Jamie Salvatori

We all know the saying, “If I knew then what I know now, I’d be much better off”. I was thinking about that the other day and decided to put together a list of mistakes I’ve made during my e-commerce life. I had to shorten the list to just 6 items because there’s only so much room on th...
Business
Miva Merchant President Discusses eBay, Facebook

July 19, 2011 • PEC Staff

Ecommerce executives manage their own companies. But they are also experienced observers of online retailing in general. It's in the latter capacity that we recently spoke with Rick Wilson. He's president of Miva Merchant, the hosted shopping cart. He's also a 12-year veteran of ecomme...
Business
Opportunity vs. Potential while valuing your ecommerce company

July 17, 2011 • Manish Shah

It is interesting to see the wide range of value various buyers will attribute to a same online business. One buyer may find a business as worthless while other is willing to pay hundreds of thousands. Valuation of your ecommerce company is in direct proportion to the amount of opportun...
Finance
Groupon Files for IPO: Rapid Growth, No Profits

July 15, 2011 • Marcia Kaplan

Founded in Chicago in November 2008, Groupon filed to go public last month after reportedly rejecting a $6 billion takeover offer from Google last December. As with other recent filings by ecommerce firms, a few surprises emerged. Groupon is a pioneering marketing company that has achie...
Payments
Understanding Credit Card Fees, Part 3: Punitive Interchange Rates

July 14, 2011 • Phil Hinke

This is the third installment in a series where I help you understand your credit and debit card fees. In last month’s article, "Understanding Credit Card Fees, Part 2: Merchant Account Fees and Charges," I discussed the various monthly and annual fees charged by merchant account provid...
Finance
Zynga Opens the Kimono; We See Facebook

July 8, 2011 • Marcia Kaplan

If you have ever played FarmVille, CityVille or Zynga Poker you're in good company — 148 million other people in 166 countries play Zynga's games monthly. And because people usually play more than one game each month, they account for 232 million monthly visits. All of this is disclosed...
Business
Understanding the New ‘Durbin’ Debit Card Rates; Exec Explains

July 8, 2011 • PEC Staff

The Durbin Amendment to the U.S. Dodd-Frank legislative package affects ecommerce merchants. That's because the Amendment greatly lowers the rate — called interchange — that Visa and MasterCard charge for the processing of debit cards. The final rate, as determined by the U.S. Federal ...
Finance
Our List of Publicly-Traded Ecommerce Companies

June 30, 2011 • Marcia Kaplan

The rise of online retailing has fostered many companies in that industry to become publicly owned, selling shares on major stock exchanges. We've been tracking publicly-traded ecommerce companies, and we've prepared a list of them, together with publicly traded, pure-play Internet com...
Business
Sen. Durbin to Introduce Federal Sales Tax Legislation, Says Affiliate Marketing Exec

June 30, 2011 • PEC Staff

Many states in the U.S. are contemplating — or enacting — changes to their sales tax laws to include online affiliates as establishing a physical nexus. New York, California, Illinois, Texas and other states have passed laws that require Amazon and other online merchants that have affi...
Payments
Understanding Credit Card Fees, Part 2: Merchant Account Fees and Charges

June 29, 2011 • Phil Hinke

In “Understanding Credit Card Fees, Part 1: The Basics,” I outlined the information you need to know to receive the best rates from your merchant account provider. This article is "Part 2" of that series where I help you understand your credit card fees. In this installment, I address...
Payments
Increase Conversions with Alternate Payment Methods

June 24, 2011 • Pamela Hazelton

Ten years ago, PayPal was the ideal solution for small businesses that couldn’t justify the high costs of a merchant account. In its infancy, the growth of PayPal user accounts came from smaller merchants. PayPal later became the norm for eBay and large etailers because it allowed peo...
Finance
How LinkedIn Makes Money; Behind the IPO Numbers

June 23, 2011 • Marcia Kaplan

In May, LinkedIn went public. To much fanfare, the business-oriented social networking site sold common shares at $45 each, for a total offering of $352.8 million and an overall valuation — public and private shares — of $4.3 billion. It was the biggest Internet initial public offering ...
Payments
Durbin Amendment May Foster Deceptive Credit, Debit Processing Fees

June 21, 2011 • Phil Hinke

The Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act takes effect on July 21, 2011. One of the key points in the Amendment requires large financial institutions to cap their debit card interchange fees. Currently, the scheduled cap is 12 cents per transaction. However, that ...
Business
Durbin Amendment to Lower Debit Card Processing Rates

June 16, 2011 • PEC Staff

Debit card processing rates are soon to be dramatically lower for all U.S. merchants. That’s because of the “Durbin Amendment” to the massive Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation, enacted last year.
Finance
13 Crowdfunding Websites to Fund Your Business

June 15, 2011 • Sig Ueland

Who needs banks? Crowdfunding websites can help you find a community of small investors to fund your business, without the risks of traditional financing. Here is a list of crowdfunding sites. Some sites focus on funding creative projects, others sites focus on meeting specific needs ...