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.
Amazon & Marketplaces | B2B | Cross-border Selling | Finance | Fraud Prevention | Inventory | Local Business | Payments | Shipping & Fulfillment | Staffing-
Business
Lessons Learned: Lori Karmel of We Take The Cake
October 29, 2009 • Ankush Agarwal
"Lessons Learned" is a series where we ask ecommerce business owners to share their experiences and advice. For this installment, we interviewed Lori Karmel, owner of We Take The Cake, a bakery located in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. We Take The Cake's gourmet creations have been featured on F...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
Fulfillment: Guidelines for Outsourcing
October 27, 2009 • John Lindberg
As the owner of a fulfillment company, I’ve gathered a number of tips and discovered an assortment of traps over the years. If you’re thinking about outsourcing your warehousing, shipping, and returns processing, let me suggest that you follow these guidelines. They will help you find a...
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Amazon & Marketplaces
PeC Review: Sellit Makes Marketplaces Social
October 23, 2009 • Armando Roggio
A new "self-promotion" tool lets merchants selling on Yahoo!, CafePress, Etsy, or Cartfly promote their products on leading social media sites, access a social media advertising network, and post a Flash-based widget on their blog or other sites. Sellit is a "bolt-on" solution that pr...
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Business
Ecommerce Know-How: Sole Proprietorship, S Corporation or LLC?
October 22, 2009 • Kevin Patrick Allen
Launching an ecommerce business can be confusing. An entrepreneur must choose a shopping cart and find sources for inventory. And, there are questions regarding accounting, liability, and filing regulatory documents. Those questions can create enough confusion to halt the journey befor...
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Business
Lessons Learned: Enstrom Candies Co-owner Jamee Simons
October 22, 2009 • Ankush Agarwal
“Lessons Learned” is a series where we ask ecommerce business owners to share their experiences and advice. For this installment, we interviewed Jamee Simons, co-owner of Enstrom Candies Inc., a ...
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Business
Yahoo! Reports Third Quarter Earnings, Proclaims “Economy Starting to Loosen Up”
October 21, 2009 • Kevin Patrick Allen
Yahoo! Inc. reported third quarter earnings yesterday that beat Wall Street expectations but didn’t put to rest lingering questions about the health of the display advertising market, which generates a large portion of Yahoo!’s revenue. Reliance on Display Ads Yahoo! reported revenue ...
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Business
Quick Query: Attorney Explains New FTC Blogging Guidelines
October 20, 2009 • PEC Staff
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has updated its rules concerning endorsements and testimonials in advertising. Beginning December 1st, the FTC will require bloggers and other reviewers to disclose any payments or free products they receive from advertisers. Julie O'Neill, with the W...
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Business
Paid Reviews Subject to Fines Under New FTC Rule
October 13, 2009 • Kevin Patrick Allen
The recently announced changes to the Federal Trade Commission’s "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising" are prompting ecommerce merchants to take a closer look at how they advertise and interact with bloggers and reviewers. The changes address endor...
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Business
DHGate.com Sources China-made Products
October 12, 2009 • PEC Staff
DHGate.com is an online marketplace of wholesale products from China. The company is located in Beijing and Diane Wang is its founder and CEO. Prior to launching DHGate, she ...
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Business
Newegg.com: Common Stock Filing Reveals Fast Growing, Profitable Firm
October 8, 2009 • Kerry Murdock
Newegg.com, the electronics retailer, intends to raise some $175 million through the initial public sale of its common stock. The company filed registration documents with the U. S.
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Business
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Merchant Voice
Goal Setting with our Teams
October 7, 2009 • Ken Kikkawa
As merchants, entrepreneurs and business drivers we all wear various hats during the course of the day, week or month that sometimes are not part of any job description. One of my principle responsibilities is to set the overall direction and strategy for our company, both long term an...
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Business
Lessons Learned: Allstate Sign Plaque Owner Relies on SEO
September 29, 2009 • Brendan Gibbons
“Lessons Learned” is an occasional series where we ask ecommerce business owners to share their experiences and advice. For this installment, we asked Mark Fick, owner of Allstate Sign ...
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Business
Profile: Michigan-based Entrepreneur Reinvents for the eCommerce Age
September 24, 2009 • Brendan Gibbons
John Lindberg, president of eFulfillment Service, is no stranger to change. In 1969, Lindberg founded LPI Corporation in western Michigan, specializing in powder coating of metals used in cars ...
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Business
Quick Query: Faculte.com CEO on Self-serve Video Tools
September 22, 2009 • PEC Staff
Online shoppers are increasingly looking for video to demonstrate a product or explain its use. But for many ecommerce merchants, producing, embedding, and playing video is a complicated, confusing process. There is a company called Faculte (pronounced fak-uhl-tee) that provides all of ...
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Payments
Cross-Border Affiliate Payments: Banks, PayPal and Payoneer
September 18, 2009 • Michael E. Shatz
Affiliate marketing is one of the pillars of modern ecommerce. Hundreds of independent networks, such as buy.at, MediaWhiz, Convert2Media and Media Shakers, connect affiliates with merchants, which drives traffic to the merchant sites and earns referral fees for the affiliates. But, act...
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Payments
The PeC Review: Braintree Payment Solutions Protects Merchants and Customers
September 17, 2009 • Armando Roggio
Without a safe, reliable means of processing payments, there would be no ecommerce. So it is not a surprise that managing payments and securing credit card and customer information is a major concern for online retailers. Braintree Payment Solutions offers merchants a complete electron...
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Business
Lessons Learned: Atamaii.com Founder Finds Success Selling Anime Toys
September 17, 2009 • John W. Dawe
Two tours as a Navy officer in Japan introduced Stu Carter to website development and the anime toy market. In 1999, he took his combined experiences and launched the online toy store Atamaii.com. In 2008, the company's revenue peaked at $350,000, and 2009 revenue is expected to be arou...
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Business
Quick Query: comScore Official on Tracking Internet Activity
September 16, 2009 • PEC Staff
In the field of tracking and reporting on Internet activity, there's no more prominent name than comScore. It was founded in 1999 to track and report on ecommerce activity and, now, comScore has diversified to track online advertising, socializing, searching, and much more. It's also a ...
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Business
Quick Query: eHobbies CEO Kikkawa Offers Holiday-selling Ideas
September 14, 2009 • PEC Staff
There’s no more innovative ecommerce company than eHobbies.com. Founded in 1999, it has grown to become a leader, if not the leader, in its field of hobby and toy retailing. Ken Kikkawa is the CEO of eHobbies.com. He also writes "The (eCommerce) Corner Office" blog at Practical eCommerc...
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Business
Lessons Learned: William Villiers of Select Wallpaper
September 9, 2009 • John W. Dawe
Lessons Learned is a biweekly series where we ask ecommerce business owners to share their experiences and advice. For this installment we interviewed William Villiers of Select Wallpaper, an online ...
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Cross-border Selling
The PeC Review: i-BEAK Offers First Rate Translation and Cultural Services
September 9, 2009 • Armando Roggio
One of the great promises of the Internet is that it brings together buyers and sellers from around the world. But, that doesn't necessarily mean that everyone can communicate. Ecommerce marketers who want to sell their products or services worldwide should therefore consider translati...
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Business
Quick Query: What, Exactly, Is An IP Address?
September 4, 2009 • PEC Staff
Ecommerce merchants can now track where their visitors live. Digital Element is a firm that provides this geo-tracking service and it allows merchants to change their home page and other landing pages based, for example, on whether a visitor lives in Alaska or Florida. The technology ...
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Business
Lessons Learned: Patricia Brown of LordsArt.com
September 3, 2009 • John W. Dawe
Lessons Learned is a biweekly series where we ask ecommerce business owners to share their experiences and advice. For this installment, we interviewed Patricia Brown of LordsArt.com. Based in Ozone Park, N.Y., the site sells Christian art and gifts. A school teacher by day and ecommer...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
Prioritizing for the Holidays
September 1, 2009 • Ken Kikkawa
I'm a merchant at heart. I love merchandise. It probably goes back to over 20 years ago when I was an assistant buyer for May Company department stores. Part of our responsibility was to work out in the stores during sale periods in November and December. It gave me a chance to get ...
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Shipping & Fulfillment
Shipping Rates: Flat Rate Boxes Usually Save Money
August 31, 2009 • John Lindberg
U.S. Postal Service flat rate envelopes and boxes can be a big money saver under the right circumstances. But you have to be careful. That's because there are now seven domestic USPS flat rate size and rate combinations, and potential cost savings depend on a fairly complicated comparis...
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Business
Quick Query: Network Solutions Exec Discusses Retooled Shopping Cart
August 27, 2009 • PEC Staff
There was a time, in the 1990s, when the only place to buy a domain name was at Network Solutions. That storied company has since had its ups and downs, but no one disputes the pioneering nature of its products. Recently, Network Solutions redesigned and repositioned its website and its...
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Business
Profile: The Trick Shop Is eCommerce Magic
August 26, 2009 • John W. Dawe
In a time when traditional magic shops were going out of business, Sam Blankenship wanted to prove that a new magic shop could thrive. So he launched The Trick Shop in 2004 with a physical, brick and mortar store; he then launched the web component, TrickShopMagic.com, in 2005. Revenu...
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Business
Quick Query: Digital Element Exec on Geographic Targeting
August 24, 2009 • PEC Staff
The ability to target consumers is important for many ecommerce businesses. Many businesses, in fact, could benefit greatly from knowing where a customer lives so that the offer, and even the language, can be tailored to that geographic area. There is a company that provides that level ...
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Business
Lessons Learned: TheShopFittingsStore.com Supplies U.K. Brick-and-Mortar Stores
August 20, 2009 • John W. Dawe
Lessons Learned is a biweekly series where we ask ecommerce business owners to share their experiences and advice. For this installment, we interviewed Jonathon Hall, business development manager for TheShopFittingsStore.com, an Essex, U.K.-based online retailer of retail shop fittings,...
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Cross-border Selling
Ecommerce Know-How: Translate Your Ecommerce Site
August 19, 2009 • Armando Roggio
Language translation is an increasingly important part of ecommerce marketing, as many small- to mid-size businesses seek non-English-speaking customers. But translating a product detail page into Spanish, French, Czech, or Chinese is, frankly, not as simple as hopping over to Google, ...