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.

Business
Visual Bookshelf Taps Into Social Networking

February 25, 2008 • PEC Staff

For those who are regular visitors to Facebook, you may have come across an application called Visual Bookshelf. It allows Facebook users to show on their pages the books they are reading or have read, and each of the book’s titles link back to Amazon.com. Users can also create book rev...
Business
Field Test: Social Networking, Part 3 of 3

February 25, 2008 • PEC Staff

In Field Test, Practical eCommerce has gathered ten seasoned ecommerce merchants and asked each of them the same questions around a given topic. This month’s topic is social networking. The participating ecommerce merchants are: Dave Norris, House of Antique Hardware; Justin Hertz, Mut...
Business
AIG Insurance Vice President, Nancy Callahan

February 21, 2008 • PEC Staff

Join Mitch Bettis as he discusses ecommerce insurance with Nancy Callahan, Vice President of AIG Insurance.
Business
High Performer: Powerbookmedic.com Parts and Repairs For Mac Laptops

February 20, 2008 • PEC Staff

If you have laptop, and it’s a Mac, you may feel like Apple is the only place to turn for parts and repairs. But since 2002, Powerbookmedic.com has been offering an alternative. The site specializes in installations, repairs, parts, and service for many portable Apple devices. What star...
Business
High Performer: Pasty.com Sells Meal In A Crust

February 18, 2008 • PEC Staff

On Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula are two old copper mining communities — Kearsarge and Calumet. Calumet is home to Pasty Central, which operates a pasty kitchen in Kearsarge, the Pasty Central Express. Pasty Central is an employee-owned company, and its website, Pasty.com, has been onli...
Business
Bikewagon.com: From Classifieds To eBay To Its Own Website

February 13, 2008 • Pat Callahan

Dale Majors is passionate about cycling. So much so that in 1999, at age 16, he decided to take a chance with selling bicycle gear online. His original goal was simple: He was looking to upgrade his own cycling equipment and needed the money to do so. Like other young aspiring entrepren...
Business
Email Blacklists “Kind Of A Crazy Thing”

February 13, 2008 • Jennifer D. Meacham

Bob Frady is making his mark as vice president of direct marketing for LiveNation.com, a concert ticket mega-site based in Beverly Hills, Calif. With 26 million members, LiveNation’s emailed notices and newsletters bring in millions in ticket, CD and T-shirt sales. It’s Frady’s job to e...
Business
Quick Query: Debbie Levitt, CEO of As Was

February 13, 2008 • PEC Staff

Debbie Levitt is the CEO of eBay’s first Certified Service Provider, As Was (Aswas.com), which offers services for online sellers including branding, design, and personalized sales and marketing strategies. Levitt is eBay’s first Certified Consultant and the first Education Specialist t...
Business
eCreamery.com: Ice Cream Made To Order

February 11, 2008 • Pat Callahan

In Omaha, Neb. is a historic neighborhood called Dundee. If it sounds vaguely familiar it may be because it is home to Warren Buffet, the second richest man in the world. It is also home to a unique parlor and online venture named eCreamery. eCreamery and its website, eCreamery.com,...
Business
eBay Expert and eBook Author Danna Crawford

February 6, 2008 • PEC Staff

Crawford and Pat Callahan talk about upcoming social media classes offered by Danna, as well as her eBay experience.
Business
Quick Query: Wholesale Index's Justin Prescott

February 4, 2008 • PEC Staff

  Justin Prescott is the marketing manager for JP Communications, Inc, an Internet marketing and advertising company that publishes vertical search engines and directories, and it recently launched its Top Ten Wholesale Index site as a free tool for ecommerce managers to use in forecast...
Business
Online Merchant Caters To Serious Musicians

January 30, 2008 • Pat Callahan

Andy Rothstein has been playing electric guitars for more than 30 years. However, he had a problem that lead to an idea. The problem was that guitars did not sound as well as they should. The idea was Rothstein Guitars and its website, Guitar-mod.com, which Rothstein runs with his wife...
Business
Lessons Learned: Priceshoppe.com CEO

January 30, 2008 • PEC Staff

“Lessons Learned” is an occasional series where we ask seasoned ecommerce professionals about their mistakes and successes. For this installment, we’ve asked Frank Dappah, the CEO of Priceshoppe.com, a Charlotte, N.C.-based retailer of consumer electronics, movies, games and music. Pri...
Business
SilverDock CEO And Founder Raj Gajwani

January 25, 2008 • PEC Staff

Gajwani and Pat Callahan talk about the benefits of online video for ecommerce.
Business
Quick Query: Miva Merchant EVP Rick Wilson

January 23, 2008 • PEC Staff

Miva Merchant is a pioneering shopping cart. First launched in 1995, it rose, and then fell, with the dot-com boom and bust. Findwhat.com, a publicly traded company, purchased Miva Merchant in 2004. Findwhat.com subsequently renamed itself Miva, only to sell the Miva Merchant shopping c...
Business
MarketLive Chairman And Founder Ken Burke

January 18, 2008 • PEC Staff

Burke and Pat Callahan discuss social networking as a requirement for doing business in the future.
Business
Quick Query: Certona CEO Meyar Sheik

January 16, 2008 • PEC Staff

Certona Corporation helps ecommerce merchants deliver product recommendations and customized content to their visitors. The technology, called Resonance, automates visitor traffic patterns, among other variables, and then recommends relevant products and content to each and every visito...
Business
Getting Started In Exporting

January 16, 2008 • Hal Selim

Exporting can be a lucrative component of an online business. But many small business owners shy away from it simply because they have limited knowledge of the process. For these owners, there are two good places to begin. The first is creating an international section on your website ...
Business
Ten More (Great) Ecommerce Ideas

January 9, 2008 • PEC Staff

Practical eCommerce recently asked 50 industry insiders to share a great, innovative idea that could potentially help an ecommerce firm. Here’s what ten of them had to say. Determine Valuable Variables "Doing multivariate testing used to require some in-house programming expertise o...
Business
Bloglist: Roy Rubin

January 7, 2008 • PEC Staff

Name: Roy Rubin, President Company: Varien Blog: Varien.com/blog In Bloglist, we ask ecommerce professionals to identify their favorite blogs. For this installment, we asked Roy Rubin, president of Varien, the company behind the open source platform Magento. Techcrunch.com This i...
Business
Muttmart.com’s President Justin Hertz

January 4, 2008 • PEC Staff

Hertz and Pat Callahan explore the elements of a successful website, including how to distinguish yourself from the competition.
Business
Bloglist: Michelle Greer

January 2, 2008 • PEC Staff

Name: Michelle Greer, Marketing Specialist Company: Volusion, Inc. Blog: Onlinebusiness.volusion.com In Bloglist, we ask ecommerce professionals to identify their favorite blogs. For this installment, we asked Michelle Greer, marketing specialist at Volusion, a company that offers ...
Business
Red Door Interactive President Reid Carr

December 28, 2007 • PEC Staff

Carr and Pat Callahan discuss the intricacies of a case study Carr co-authored — Cricket Communications: Less Is Definitely More.
Business
More Great Ecommerce Ideas

December 26, 2007 • PEC Staff

Practical eCommerce recently asked 50 industry insiders to share a great, innovative idea that could potentially help an ecommerce firm. Here’s what ten more of them had to say. Hire The Right Employee Susan Denison Managing Director Cook Associates, Inc. Cookassociates.com "Clea...
Business
ChoiceStream’s Toffer Winslow, executive vice president of sales and marketing

December 20, 2007 • PEC Staff

Winslow and Pat Callahan delve into ChoiceStream’s 2007 Personalization Survey, including the potential of personalized recommendations — good and bad.
Business
Sitebrand’s Carolyn Gardner, director of e-marketing services

December 14, 2007 • PEC Staff

Gardner and Pat Callahan discuss methods of proactively managing the customer experience via “web personalization.”
Business
Managing Risk When Enforcing Online Rights

December 10, 2007 • John W. Dozier, Jr.

It never ceases to amaze me how much theft is going on right under the eyes of major companies and they don't appear to understand how to spot and deal with it. Of course it takes many forms, often very well disguised, but every business should do its best to keep the thieves away. Web ...
Business
Fabric.com’s Director of Marketing Laurie Eady

December 7, 2007 • PEC Staff

Pat Callahan and Eady discuss the attributes that led to Fabric.com becoming the largest online retailer of fabric.
Business
Quick Query: Online Educator Raquel Collins

December 5, 2007 • PEC Staff

The University of British Columbia is a pioneer in online education for working professionals. Many of its courses apply to ecommerce merchants and we’ve asked Raquel Collins, senior program leader for UBC Continuing Studies, to explain these courses to us. PeC: Thank you, Raquel, fo...
Business
Killersocks.com: Socks Go Mainstream

December 5, 2007 • Pat Callahan

“True love is like a pair if socks: You gotta have two and they’ve gotta match.” -Unknown Brendan Gallagher and Kerren Lynch-Gallagher aren’t your typical website owners, if there is such a thing. Brendan directs animation at Out To Play Entertainment. And Kerren, who goes by Kerry, is...