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
Tips for Improving Drop Shipping and Inventory Management

October 21, 2010 • PEC Staff

Autumn provides a not-so-subtle reminder that the holiday season is in swing. I recently moderated "Manage Inventory and Drop Shipping for the Holiday Rush," a Practical eCommerce webinar, on this very subject. It featured Anne Pingree, senior sales engineer with Infopia, the hosted s...
Business
Internet Explorer 9: Managing Cookies and Cache

October 19, 2010 • Armando Roggio

From managing cookies to clearing your browser cache, there are essential tasks that every web surfer needs to know. Think of it this way. Many professionals and entrepreneurs use a web browser like Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) to access web-based email, conduct research, or even...
Business
Legal: Privacy Lessons from the Twitter Breach

October 18, 2010 • Jeff Jacobson, Jd, Llm

Earlier this year the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) settled a case with Twitter regarding, in the opinion of the FTC, lax electronic administration of Twitter's website. This case provides insight into what is required in privacy policies and what administrative controls are required....
Business
Lessons Learned: TheUncommonDog.com, Uncommonly Successful

October 13, 2010 • PEC Staff

“Lessons Learned” is a series where we ask ecommerce business owners to share their experiences. For this installment, we spoke with Greg Jerum. He is the CEO of TheUncommonDog.com, a ...
Business
September 2010 Top Ten: Our Most Popular Posts

October 5, 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 most popular articles for September 2010. Google Instant Search: The Impact for Ecommerce Site Owners In September, Google...
Business
Lessons Learned: Best Bully Sticks Thrives on Teamwork

September 28, 2010 • Kerry Murdock

“Lessons Learned” is a series where we ask ecommerce business owners to share their experiences. For this installment we visited with Avrum Elmakis, owner and president of Best Bully Sticks,
Business
Lessons Learned: Free Shipping Helps, Says Bike Retailer

September 21, 2010 • PEC Staff

“Lessons Learned” is a series where we ask ecommerce business owners to share their experiences. For this installment, we visited with Todd Henley, president of Makai’s, an online retailer of ...
Business
Protect Your Brand from Counterfeiters

September 16, 2010 • Jeff Jacobson, Jd, Llm

This is the second installment in a two-part series regarding protection against counterfeit products being sold on the Internet. In the first installment, "Legal: When Merchants Are Liable for Selling Counterfeit Brands," I wrote how online retailers and auction houses can protect them...
Payments
SSL Certificates: Extended Validation Worth the Cost?

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...
Business
Lessons Learned: Dog-Toy Merchant Stresses Branding; Cites Early SEO Miscues

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....
Business
Financial Management Key to Small Businesses, Says NetSuite Exec

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...
Business
August 2010 Top Ten: Our Most Popular Posts

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 ...
Business > Merchant Voice
Back on the Front Line

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....
Business
Overseas Expansion: Tips from a Global Exec

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...
Business
New Firefox Release: Faster, Better Video, Different Look

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 ...
Business
Lessons Learned: Candle Retailer Regrets Custom Shopping Cart

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 ...
Business
Comparison Shopping Engines: Strategies for Smaller Merchants

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...
Business
Live Chat: Magento’s Roy Rubin

August 20, 2010 • Kerry Murdock

Before launching Magento in 2007, Varien was a small, Los Angeles-based development firm. CEO Roy Rubin would occasionally contribute articles to Practical eCommerce, then a printed magazine.
Business
Legal: When Merchants Are Liable for Selling Counterfeit Brands

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...
Shipping & Fulfillment
Ten Ways To Reduce Your Shipping Costs

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...
Business
Lessons Learned: 877MyJuicer.com Changes Platforms, and Evolves

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...
Business
July 2010 Top Ten: Our Most Popular Posts

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...
Business
Bloglist: TechXpress’s Louis Camassa

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,
Business
Merchant Profile: David Sasson of OverstockArt

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...
Business
Five Legal Practices to Protect Your Online Business

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...
Business
Lessons Learned: Rob Holzer with S&S Worldwide

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...
Business
Intuit Exec Discusses QuickBooks 2010, Possibility of New Shopping Cart

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...
Business
Internet Inventions Covered by Patent Law, Says Supreme Court

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...
Business
June 2010 Top Ten: Our Most Popular Posts

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...
Shipping & Fulfillment
How To Buy Shipping Supplies

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...