Business

September 16, 2010 • Brendan Gibbons

Internet users interact with SSL certificates when they access a web page or transmit data over the web. These certificates help confirm the rightful owner of the site, and that payment and other information is encrypted and safely transmitted. However, one size of SSL certificates do...

September 14, 2010 • Kerry Murdock

Candy Blakeslee once ordered a toy for her dog. She ordered the toy on eBay because she and her husband, Dean, had sold antiques there and she figured it would be a good place to buy dog toys, too. The year was 2000. "I decided I should buy my dog a toy from eBay." said Blakeslee....

September 9, 2010 • PEC Staff

Financial management is critical to ecommerce companies. But the tools to manage financial matters vary, and many of them don't automatically integrate with a merchant's ecommerce site, making the financial tracking and reporting process even more burdensome. To help us understand finan...

September 1, 2010 • Kate Monteith

Each month, we compile a list of the ten most popular articles we published at Practical eCommerce that month, based on the number of page views. Here are our ten ...

August 31, 2010 • Ken Kikkawa

As a business owner, there are many times when you have to do it all: hire, fire, answer phones, solve UPS problems, pick & pack orders...you name it! Some of the most challenging parts of my job is not the business aspect of running the company but instead the people aspect of it....

August 31, 2010 • Brendan Gibbons

Once merchants are successful in domestic markets, many of them weigh the benefits of expanding their operations abroad. The many challenges accompanying overseas expansion, including language optimization, SEO, taxation and credit card processing, can seem daunting. We asked Jim McGee...

August 26, 2010 • Armando Roggio

Last week, the Mozilla Foundation released a new version of its Firefox 4 web browser. The new version offers better performance, improved tab management, more HTML5 video support, synchronization, and ...

August 26, 2010 • PEC Staff

“Lessons Learned” is a series where we ask ecommerce business owners to share their experiences. For this installment, we visited with Logan Suttman, CEO of Black & Light Co., which ...

August 25, 2010 • PEC Staff

Comparison shopping engines can drive traffic to an ecommerce site. But there are over 120 such engines, and how to decide which of them to use and whether to use them at all are questions many merchants have. We spoke with Scot Wingo, CEO of ChannelAdvisor, a leading ecommerce software...

August 20, 2010 • Kerry Murdock

August 18, 2010 • Jeff Jacobson, Jd, Llm

This is the first installment of a two-part series regarding protection against counterfeit products being sold on the Internet. The first part of the series, below, discusses how online retailers and auction houses can protect themselves from unwittingly selling counterfeit products. T...

August 10, 2010 • John Lindberg

Online merchants are often caught between the increasing demand for free delivery and rising shipping and fulfillment costs. Thankfully, there are some simple ways to reduce the cost of shipping and order fulfillment. Here are ten of them. 1. Rate Shop Rate shop your parcels among al...

August 3, 2010 • PEC Staff

“Lessons Learned” is an occasional series in which we ask ecommerce business owners to share their experiences, good and bad. For this installment, we visited with Andrew Casey, founder and CEO of 877MyJuicer.com, a Del Mar, Calif.-based seller of juicers and other health-related and ki...

July 30, 2010 • Kate Monteith

Each month, we compile a list of the ten most popular Practical eCommerce articles published that month, based on the number of page views. Here are the ten most popular articles for July 2010. Six Facebook Applications to Sell Your Products In this, the third installment of our serie...

July 28, 2010 • Nic Murdock

In “Bloglist,” we ask ecommerce professionals to share some of their favorite blogs, websites and forums, and tell us why they read them. For this installment, we asked Louis Camassa,

July 27, 2010 • PEC Staff

You could argue that a center of the online retail art world is in Kansas. That's where OverstockArt.com is located, and in nine years it has grown to be a leading online retailer of original art reproductions. Its founder and CEO, David Sasson, has guided the business from its inceptio...

July 15, 2010 • Jeff Jacobson, Jd, Llm

The following is a list of five business practices that online business owners should follow to help protect their business from liability and minimize legal claims. 1. Maintain Clear and Accurate Communication with Customers Clear communications will solve many customer complaint pro...

July 13, 2010 • PEC Staff

"Lessons Learned" is an occasional feature where we ask seasoned ecommerce professionals about their experiences in online retailing. For this installment, we've asked Rob Holzer, emarketing manager with S&S Worldwide, a 100-year-old company that sells craft kits, games, educational...

July 7, 2010 • PEC Staff

Many ecommerce merchants use QuickBooks, or are at least familiar with it. There is a new version of QuickBooks that includes new document management, online banking, and other features. To discuss QuickBooks 2010 and other Intuit products, we spoke with Alex Hood, product management le...

July 1, 2010 • PEC Staff

The Bilski case involved, potentially, a dramatic shift in U.S. patent law. It's been awaiting decision by the U.S. Supreme Court since the fall of 2009, and earlier this week, the Court rendered its opinion. The case involved the scope of potential patents, and whether an invention mus...

July 1, 2010 • Kate Monteith

Each month, we compile a list of the ten most popular Practical eCommerce articles and blogs based on the number of page views. Here are the ten most popular articles for June 2010. Ten Great Ecommerce Ideas for June 2010 Our readers enjoy reading timely ideas and advice from other me...

June 30, 2010 • John Lindberg

Shipping supplies, such as corrugated cartons and bubble wrap, are the third highest overhead cost (after labor and facilities expense) in most order fulfillment operations. No matter if you outsource your order fulfillment or do it in-house, keeping shipping supplies affordable is a t...

June 29, 2010 • PEC Staff

Alibaba is a huge force in global, business-to-business ecommerce. The company is based in China and it links millions of wholesale suppliers with businesses that resell those products. The company ...

June 28, 2010 • PEC Staff

There are more consumers that don't speak English than those that do. We wondered the best way for ecommerce merchants to reach those non-English-speaking prospects. Merely translating a website is only part of the challenge. To help us understand all of the issues surrounding language ...

June 24, 2010 • Ken Kikkawa

I recently attended the Internet Retailer Conference in Chicago and it was a terrific show. If you are able to attend only one show per year, I highly recommend going to this one and if you are not able to get to any shows because you are too involved in your business you need to find ...

June 22, 2010 • PEC Staff

Innovation on the Internet depends on the ability by entrepreneurs to protect intellectual property. Google, Amazon and other Internet companies have received many U.S. patents that protect, seemingly, processes or methods of doing business. But that protection could be threatened by a ...

June 17, 2010 • Jeff Jacobson, Jd, Llm

Your website most likely has pictures on it. It might also have video as part of the design or to help in the sale of products. The use of these items is necessary to show your customers what the product looks like or the product’s functions. However, all too often the source of the p...

June 9, 2010 • PEC Staff

When it comes to marketing, many merchants think of pay-per-click ads, or search engine optimization or even email newsletters. But one merchant has successfully used television advertising. He is Jamie Salvatori, founder and owner of VAT19.com, a retailer of unusual gift items. He use...

June 3, 2010 • John Lindberg

U.S. export sales are increasing, which makes international rate shopping more important than ever. For example, here are published rates for a typical 10-pound parcel sent from my fulfillment company located in Traverse City, Mich. to a client’s customer located in London, England. U...

May 31, 2010 • Kate Monteith

It is always interesting to learn which of the Practical eCommerce posts are receiving the most reads each month. Here are the ten most popular articles in May 2010, based on the number of page views. Ten Great Ecommerce Ideas for May 2010 Each month, we ask industry insiders for bite...