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
Learning Bookkeeping Basics
July 12, 2007 • PEC Staff
Poor financial management is one key contributor to why more than 50 percent of small businesses fail in the first five years of existence, according to the Small Business Administration. Because ecommerce has such low barriers to entry — a few bucks for a hosted shopping cart and a fe...
-
Business
Interview: UPS V.P. On Shipping Technology
July 11, 2007 • Michael A. Cox
When Jordan Colletta talks about the way we used to ship and track and deliver goods before it became a way of life for thousands of e-entrepreneurs, he knows what he's talking about. For three years, starting in 1975, he was one of those guys you see running in and out of businesse...
-
Business
The Law Of PPC Advertising
July 9, 2007 • John W. Dozier, Jr.
Many of the legal issues existing today have little, or no, clear legal authority to guide us. This is because many of the abuses are: • Not discovered. • When they are discovered by the advertiser, they are settled confidentially. • When litigated it can take years to get a decision...
-
Business
Boosting Your Programming Skills
July 4, 2007 • PEC Staff
If you're tired of calling your web design firm every time you want to make a minor tweak to your site, there are online courses you can take to boost your knowledge in HTML, JavaScript, cascading style sheets and more. In fact, there are so many online options to improve programming s...
-
Business
Video Tutorial: Rounded Corners with CSS
July 2, 2007 • Brian Getting
Rounded corners present a unique challenge to website designers, particularly when using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to create layouts that are search engine friendly and scalable. In an attempt to de-mystify some of the techniques used to create visual effects, such as rounded corner...
-
Fraud Prevention
Click Fraud Not Top PPC Concern
June 27, 2007 • PEC Staff
Click fraud has been a popular topic of discussion for a number of years, and it doesn’t appear the issue will fade away anytime soon. The industry is full of various numbers thrown around putting the click fraud rate anywhere from .02 percent (claimed by Google) to 30 percent or more. ...
-
Fraud Prevention
Click Fraud: What To Do When You’ve Been Cheated
June 11, 2007 • Greg Laptevsky
So you think you’re a victim of click fraud, and the question is now what? Well, it’s time to play “cyber detective” and get refunds from pay-per-click (PPC) engines for the wasted dollars. But keep in mind, because click fraud eats away search engine revenue in the form of reimbursed c...
-
Business
Bloglist: Ecommerce Potpourri
June 7, 2007 • PEC Staff
In Bloglist, we ask ecommerce professionals to identify their favorite blogs. For this installment, we've asked Thomas Holmes with logic+intuition. Name: Thomas Holmes Founder, logic+intuition Company: logic+intuition *Blogs: *Yclick.it, Thomasholmes.info [Grokdotcom.com] This blo...
-
Business
Critique Part One: General Internet Presence
May 30, 2007 • PEC Staff
The Problem: Daddiesboardshop.com isn't taking advantage of branding opportunities on video and social networking sites. The Fix: Aside from the videos I found on YouTube and Google Video (which are a great start), very little appears externally to distinguish the authenticity of the b...
-
Business
Daddiesboardshop.com Wins Site Review
May 30, 2007 • PEC Staff
Melanie Loveland and her son Dan built a business together around a mutual passion — snowboarding. What started as a small, brick-and-mortar store in Portland, Ore., has evolved into a full-fledged multichannel merchant. It was a process the owners didn't foresee when the business start...
-
Business
If Your ‘Baby Is Ugly,’ Fix It
May 29, 2007 • Michael A. Cox
You know those little spur-of-the-moment, do-it-on-a dare things that occasionally bring about permanent change Something like that happened to Shirley Tan. There she was in her third year at Golden Gate College in San Francisco, at work on a degree in international business. A friend...
-
Business
The Entrepreneur, The Optimist
May 16, 2007 • PEC Staff
Patrick Coughlin is experiencing firsthand the same challenges many online entrepreneurs face: It's hard to build a successful online business. Coughlin has owned a successful brick-and-mortar jewelry store in St. Clair, Mich., for 15 years. That business had grown to fill a 3,000-squa...
-
Business
Ebiz Start-up: Selling Online Is Hard Work
May 16, 2007 • PEC Staff
Seven months into the operation of his new ecommerce store, Pat Coughlin's goal of reaching $1 million in sales is nowhere in sight — but that hasn't curbed his enthusiasm for the online venture. Coughlin, longtime owner of a successful jewelry store in St. Clair, Mich., won an eBay ...
-
Business
Toolking.com: From eBay To A $31M Empire
May 9, 2007 • Michael A. Cox
If you order pliers from Toolking.com, you really can't just order pliers. You need to know what kind. Do you want locking pliers? Needle nose pliers? Tongue-and-groove pliers, slip-joint pliers, linesman's pliers, diagonal cutting pliers, electrician's pliers, hose clamp pliers, super-...
-
Business
Video Tutorial: Choosing the Right Image Format
May 2, 2007 • Brian Getting
Choosing the right image format for publishing images on the web can be tricky. After all, you don't want to spend hours and hours cleaning up a product image and making it look irresistible to your customers, only to have it distorted and ruined when you save it in a web format.
-
Staffing
When Is It Time To Hire A Call Center?
April 30, 2007 • PEC Staff
More business is a good thing, but it creates challenges: A backlog of tasks, costly space and equipment demands and, frequently, a phone that won’t stop ringing. Many ecommerce business owners turn to customer call centers for help. That was the case for Revival Animal Health of Orang...
-
Business
Legal: Your Domain Is At Risk
April 23, 2007 • John W. Dozier, Jr.
The lawyers at my firm represent registrars. We also represent domain name owners. And we sometimes represent domain name thieves (yes, everyone is entitled to an attorney). Here is an insider's perspective on the new dynamics at play in domain name cybersquatting. Most domain owners t...
-
Business
Can Product Recommendations Help You?
April 16, 2007 • PEC Staff
Most people prefer to get an opinion before purchasing a product — and if that opinion is from a current user, all the better. This desire to make informed buying decisions has given rise to product recommendation networks, such as Thisnext.com, which allow consumers to express opinions...
-
Business
Crash Course on Pay-Per-Click Arbitrage
April 11, 2007 • PEC Staff
If you've spent any time on pay-per-click (PPC) forums or in the blogosphere, you've probably heard about PPC arbitrage — the ill-reputed practice that drives bid prices up and makes life more difficult for advertisers. So, what exactly is it, and how can it affect you as an advertiser?...
-
Business
Yahoo! Panama: So Far, So Good
April 11, 2007 • PEC Staff
Yahoo!'s new paid-search advertising platform is performing well for advertisers. That's according to executives with three companies that have used the new system, known informally as Panama, since its inception earlier this year. Leigh Vosler is paid placement marketing manager with ...
-
Business
PPC, Copywriting, Product Images
April 9, 2007 • PEC Staff
When jeweler Pat Coughlin decided to expand his brick-and-mortar business to include an ecommerce store, he set an ambitious goal to generate $1 million in online sales in the first 12 months. To pull off that feat, he hired six staff members to lead critical parts of the new endeavor. ...
-
Business
Self-service Shouldn’t Replace Customer Service
April 9, 2007 • PEC Staff
Customers are satisfied with their ecommerce experiences and in many cases seem to prefer online buying to brick-and-mortar shopping trips. That's what recent studies show — but it doesn't mean virtual merchants should allow complacency to take hold. The web is experiencing unprecedent...
-
Business
Selling Your Ecommerce Business
April 2, 2007 • PEC Staff
To web entrepreneurs who contemplate selling their online businesses, experts issue a single warning: Get your financial house in order. Online endeavors are frequently launched by people who have a great idea, a great passion or a distinctive skill set, but who often lack traditional ...
-
Business
Bloglist: From SEO to Self Development
April 2, 2007 • PEC Staff
In Bloglist, we ask ecommerce professionals to identify their favorite blogs. For this installment, we’ve asked Yaro Starak, with Entrepreneur’s Journey. Name: Yaro Starak, web entrepreneur Company: Entrepreneur's Journey JohnChow.com This is a relatively new and prolific blogger....
-
Business
Protecting Your Trademark From Web Thieves
April 2, 2007 • John W. Dozier, Jr.
How valuable is your business or product name? Most small and mid-size businesses aren’t aware of the value of protecting trademarks. When the focus is on making payroll, monitoring sales, providing quality customer service and reaching financial projections, it might not seem like a to...
-
Shipping & Fulfillment
Shipping Charges: Compromises Required
March 28, 2007 • Pamela Hazelton
You would think online stores would have found it easier by now to calculate and charge accurate shipping fees, let alone set up uninterrupted checkout processes that flow smoothly. Yet I see more and more questions and requests for customizations and fixes than ever before. What makes...
-
Business
Diagnosing Site Performance Delays
March 26, 2007 • Brian Getting
When your site begins to experience performance drains, which usually show up as slow-loading web pages, the problem's diagnosis can be more challenging than its solution. The first thing developers should examine is the nature of the website. Is the site a static HTML website, or does...
-
Business
Seven Insurance Issues For Merchants
March 26, 2007 • PEC Staff
When an ecommerce business begins to grow, new risks mount and site owners should examine insurance options. Finding an insurance agent who understands the challenges of online business has been tough for many e-business owners. Only recently have insurance options become available. On...
-
Business
Digital Assets: What Are They, And How Are They Sold?
March 20, 2007 • PEC Staff
Digital assets, often called digital content, are products that can be consumed via an electronic handheld device or used online. The forms digital assets take vary greatly. Digital content might be auditory, such as a song (Apple's iTunes) or ring tone for your cell phone; it can incl...
-
Business
Quick Query: Selling Digital Content Via Major Retailers
March 19, 2007 • PEC Staff
Karl Hirsch is the CEO of Protexis (Protexis.com), a company that links retail outlets with companies wanting to sell digital content such as software, music, video, e-books and other digital products. PeC: What does Protexis do? Hirsch: We help publishers of digital content sell and f...