Category

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: WineChateau CEO Offers Spirited Advice

June 18, 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 Saurabh Abrol, president and CEO of WineChateau.com. Driven, competitive, focused, innovative, tight-fisted, and as sweet as the dess...
Fraud Prevention
Ecommerce Know-How: Be Ready to Go Beyond PCI DSS Compliance

June 15, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Although ecommerce fraud incidents as related to sales are at historically low rates, online retailers (particularly small ones) should be concerned about credit card information theft and transaction fraud even beyond the familiar Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS...
Business
Profile: Danny Flamberg is the “Manhattan Marketing Maven”

June 10, 2009 • John W. Dawe

Danny Flamberg is known as the "Manhattan Marketing Maven," and he has more than 25 years experience as online marketing strategist. He has helped start-ups become important players in their markets and helped leading global brands extend their reach, market share and relationships with...
Amazon & Marketplaces
The PeC Review: Shopster Is a Brilliant Idea That Needs a Little Polish

June 10, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Shopster is a unique combination of a hosted ecommerce cart and a relatively easy supply-chain solution that promises to help many small merchants get up and running with a functional and fully-stocked online retail business. The Calgary, Alberta, Canada-based company provides its cust...
Business
Quick Query: Two eCommerce Merchants on Operating in a Recession

June 4, 2009 • PEC Staff

Many large retailers report slow sales in the face of the current recession, but we wonder how the recession is affecting smaller ecommerce businesses. We posed that question to two online merchants. Kristen Taylor is founder and president of Juvieshop.com, a retailer of clothes and gif...
Business
Profile: BlairCandy.com Stresses Pay-per-click Advertising, Social Media

June 3, 2009 • John W. Dawe

When Pam Macharola wanted to take her family’s business online in 2000, her brothers were skeptical. Founded by their grandfather in 1938 as a newsstand, Blair Candy Company had grown to a successful full-service wholesale candy, tobacco, paper supply, and small games distributor -- all...
Payments
Alternative Payment Methods Part 1: What Are They, How Do They Work

June 2, 2009 • Michael E. Shatz

Editor's Note: This is Part 1 of a two-part series on alternative online payment methods. The author is Michael E. Shatz, a consultant and an expert on online payments. Part 1, below, defines alternative payment methods and explains the two major types. Part 2 will evaluate the claims m...
Finance
Ecommerce Know-How: Alternative Financing

May 28, 2009 • Armando Roggio

The United States and much of the western world is in the midst of a recession that has made business credit difficult to find. More than 1 million Americans lost their jobs in the third quarter of 2008, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data released May 19, 2009. And perhap...
Business
Practical eCommerce to Launch Webinar Series

May 21, 2009 • PEC Staff

Practical eCommerce will soon launch a free webinar series. The webinars will address topics most helpful to small and midsize ecommerce merchants. Armando Roggio, Practical eCommerce’s Contributing Editor and a seasoned ecommerce merchant and developer, will moderate them. “Our miss...
Inventory
Ecommerce Know-How: Improve Cash Flow by Delaying Suppliers

May 21, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Cash flow can be the strongest indicator of an ecommerce business's success or failure, and properly managing your accounts payable and receivable can be the difference between success or insolvency. Years ago, I read an article that described cash flow as the difference in time betwee...
Business
Quick Query: Zappos Exec on Benefits of Printed Catalogs

May 19, 2009 • PEC Staff

The name Zappos, for many retail observers, is synonymous with great customer service and ecommerce well executed. The company was launched in 1999 as an online footwear merchant. It has since grown into a retailing powerhouse with 2008 sales reaching just over $1 billion. In 2007, Za...
Business
Quick Query: Ecommerce in the Virgin Islands Can Save Taxes

May 14, 2009 • PEC Staff

The U.S. Virgin Islands are located roughly 90 miles east of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Sea. The islands are known for their white sand beaches and clear, blue water. A new Virgin Islands-based economic initiative wants e-businesses to know there are significant tax advantages to doin...
Business
Quick Query: Miva Merchant CEO Russ Carroll

May 8, 2009 • PEC Staff

Miva Merchant is an early day shopping cart. First launched in 1995, it rose and then fell with the dotcom boom and bust. Findwhat.com, a publicly traded company, purchased Miva Merchant in 2005. Findwhat subsequently renamed itself Miva, only to sell the Miva Merchant shopping cart div...
Business
Lessons Learned: Bicyclinghub.com Owner Doug Duguay

May 7, 2009 • Brendan Gibbons

"Lessons Learned" is a biweekly series where we ask ecommerce business owners to share their experiences and advice. For this installment, we interviewed Bicyclinghub.com owner Doug Duguay about his experiences selling cycling apparel online. Duguay's business has three employees and is...
Business
Lessons Learned: Solarbatshades.com Owner Matt Mauldin

April 23, 2009 • Brendan Gibbons

"Lessons Learned" is a biweekly series where we ask ecommerce business owners to share their experiences and advice. For this installment, we interviewed Matt Mauldin, owner of Solarbatshades.com, an Allen, Texas-based online retailer of roughly 50 types of sunglasses and accessories. M...
Business
Ecommerce Know-How: Self-Employment Tax Requirements

April 22, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Ecommerce businesses that operate as sole proprietorships, partnerships, and even limited liability companies frequently pass tax liability from the company to the owners and contractors of the business. These owners and contractors must then pay self-employment tax, which is typically ...
Amazon & Marketplaces
Quick Query: Amazon Exec Explains ‘Selling on Amazon’

April 13, 2009 • PEC Staff

Online retailers are frequently interested in new channels to sell their products. Merchants can consider auction sites and comparison-shopping sites, for example. And there's also Amazon.com. Amazon competes with many smaller ecommerce merchants, but also allows those merchants to list...
Fraud Prevention
The PeC Review: Yahoo! Alerts Can Send You Text Messages

April 10, 2009 • Armando Roggio

While there are many online tools that can help ecommerce proprietors keep track of their businesses' reputations and reviews, Yahoo! Alerts, a free notification service, is one of the few that can send those alerts as text messages to a mobile phone, or via Yahoo! Messenger, as a stand...
Business
Lessons Learned: Harvey Jelks of Jelks Gourmet Coffee

April 9, 2009 • Brendan Gibbons

"Lessons Learned" is a biweekly series where we ask ecommerce business owners to share their experiences and advice. For this installment, we interviewed Harvey Jelks, president of Jelks Gourmet Coffee, an online retailer of roughly 1,500 freshly roasted coffees and Cajun food products....
Business
Quick Query: Listrak CEO on Email Geo Tracking

April 6, 2009 • PEC Staff

Many ecommerce merchants rely on email marketing and many of them, we suspect, wish they could monitor and track emails based on where a recipient lives. Geo tracking would allow for this. To find out more about geo tracking, we interviewed Ross Kramer, CEO of Listrak, an email marketin...
Payments
Credit Card Processing: Eleven Pointers to Save Money, Part 2

April 6, 2009 • Michael E. Shatz

Editor's Note: This is Part 2 in a two-part series on ideas for ecommerce merchants to save money on credit card processing. The author is Michael Shatz, a veteran of the credit card processing industry. He now owns The Merchant’s Guide, a Massachusetts-based consulting and publishing f...
Staffing
Ecommerce Know-How: Selecting a Web Designer or Developer

March 31, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Often with ecommerce sites success is not a matter of how good you are but rather how good you look. Consumers often judge how professional and how trustworthy an online store is by nothing more than its aesthetics. While many online retailers are experts in their field (i.e., apparel,...
Business
Quick Query: Joe Dolson of Accessible Web Design

March 30, 2009 • PEC Staff

There are millions of disabled Internet users who are unable to use a website in a traditional manner, and making sure a site functions for sight impaired, deaf or disabled users is called "accessibility." To learn more about the topic, we spoke with Joseph C. Dolson, president and foun...
Fraud Prevention
The PeC Review: Google Alerts Helps With Reputation Management

March 30, 2009 • Armando Roggio

Google Alerts is a free service that sends users an email or RSS alert when the search engine indexes new material related to a specific keyword phrase. Although the service is still described as a beta, it has been available for years and many a savvy businessperson has used the servi...
Business
Lessons Learned: Dave Anderson of Wildlife Wonders

March 26, 2009 • Brendan Gibbons

"Lessons Learned" is a biweekly series where we ask ecommerce business owners to share their experiences and advice. For this installment, we interviewed Dave Anderson, co-owner of Wildlife Wonders. Anderson and his business partner Brenda Martin run the online business from their brick...
Inventory
Ecommerce Know-How: Alternative Sources to Acquire Inventory

March 18, 2009 • Armando Roggio

While many ecommerce businesses trade only in new merchandise, there is a booming market for used, refurbished, and surplus items. Savvy ecommerce merchants can identify niche markets and use public auctions, websites, and classified ads to source valuable inventory for resale. In thi...
Cross-border Selling
The PeC Traffic Report: Asian Survey Provides Insight Into Search Habits

March 13, 2009 • Armando Roggio

From time to time it is useful to take a look at other industries to see how they are doing business and to glean tips for boosting web traffic to your own ecommerce site. In this edition of The PeC Traffic Report we'll take a look at an interesting new survey of electrical engineers i...
Business
Lessons Learned: Husband and Wife Team Run Alwaysstationery.com

March 12, 2009 • Brendan Gibbons

"Lessons Learned" is a biweekly series where we ask ecommerce business owners to share their experiences and advice. For this installment, we interviewed Tom and Fran Harrington, owners of Alwaysstationery.com. Based in Naperville, IL, the husband and wife team have been running the onl...
Business
Ecommerce Know-How: Seven Steps to Starting Your eBusiness in a Recession

March 11, 2009 • Armando Roggio

The United States and much of the world is experiencing a large and deep recession that many economists believe is far from hitting bottom. But in spite of economic uncertainty, some entrepreneurs will find the current recession an opportune time to start their own ecommerce business. ...
Business
Quick Query: UPS VP on Shipping Service Upgrades

March 9, 2009 • PEC Staff

The shipping of products is a crucial function for most every ecommerce merchant and there's no company more prominent in the shipping business than UPS. UPS has recently upgraded its "UPS Ready" program and we invited Jordan Colletta, vice president of customer technology marketing, to...

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