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
What’s Selling, What’s Hot and How to Find It

June 1, 2006 • PEC Staff

Are you searching for the next trendy gadget to sell at your online store? Many people are looking to catch lightning in a bottle, but locating trends in the marketplace requires thought, research and analysis. Find Clues to New Trends There are resources for online entrepreneurs who ...
Business
Product Sourcing: What Not to Do

June 1, 2006 • PEC Staff

One thing an entrepreneur shouldn’t do is search online for “wholesale supplier” or “drop ship” when trying to locate a wholesale partner. This is according to Chris Malta, founder and CEO of Worldwide Brands, Inc. “You can look online all you want to,” said Malta, “but you won’t find ...
Business
Drop Shipping: Pros and Cons

June 1, 2006 • PEC Staff

Drop shipping remains a hot topic among etailers but, even though it has many benefits, it isn’t the best option for every business. A drop shipper is a product supplier who is willing to ship individual orders. Usually when products are purchased for resale, you have to buy them in bu...
Business
Privacy Policies

June 1, 2006 • John W. Dozier, Jr.

Even at the turn of the 17th century, Francis Bacon had it right: knowledge is power. Today, we are in the midst of the information age and, in relation to customer management and relationships, in the beginning stages of an age of invention. The challenges of managing your business inc...
Business
Quick Query: ProStores’ Julian Green

June 1, 2006 • Kerry Murdock

In January 2005, eBay Inc. purchased Kurant’s StoreSense, an online ecommerce provider. Using Kurant’s technology, eBay subsequently launched ProStores, an ecommerce solution for small to medium-sized merchants. ProStores has since signed up “tens of thousands” of online merchants. Juli...
Business
BuySafe.com Founder Steve Woda

May 31, 2006 • Michael A. Cox

For every person who shops on the Internet, there are hundreds of others who don’t – who won’t. They don’t want to. They feel, with some justification, that doing so would lead to the nightmares others have lived through with identity theft, undelivered merchandise, credit-card fraud – ...
Business
Sourcing Options for eCommerce Firms

May 31, 2006 • PEC Staff

Finding products to sell remains one of the hottest topics for online entrepreneurs, and it’s the top question eBay Radio gets from its listeners, according to Chris Malta, Product Sourcing Editor for The eBay Radio Show and Founder and CEO of Worldwide Brands, Inc. Malta defines produc...
Business
Clear Block! TracksideSales.com Rides The Mainline

May 31, 2006 • Michael A. Cox

Clear Block is a railroad signal, indicating that the block of track ahead is clear and no train wrecks are in the offing. Joe Derouin, a 48-year-old who loves trains, dreamed of being in the model-railroad business. He got the “clear block” call from his wife Jeanne almost eight years ...
Business
Payment Options and Simple Checkout

May 1, 2006 • PEC Staff

A truly successful and customer service friendly ecommerce shop will have an intuitive and welldesigned checkout system. The more difficult it is to purchase something from you, the less likely a customer will try. Here are some tips to ensure you’re running a customer service-friendly ...
Business
Zoovy CEO David Steel

May 1, 2006 • Michael A. Cox

The song, the one by Leroy VanDyke in 1959, tells about a boy from Arkansas who longs to be an auctioneer. He went off to school and learned how to say things like, “Thirty dollar bid it now, thirty-five Will you gimmie thirty-five, To make it thirty-five, to bid it a thirty-five Who wo...
Business
Greatlookz.com: Persistence Pays for Zoovy Store Owner

May 1, 2006 • Michael A. Cox

"I always wanted to be a pioneer coming across the plains in a covered wagon,” says Marion Keisling. However, there is not much need for covered wagon driving these days, so Keisling has done her pioneer thing in the ecommerce business. She runs a company called Greatlookz.com and does...
Business
Web Hosting: Hope for the Best, Plan for the Worst

May 1, 2006 • John W. Dozier, Jr.

Last month we discussed web development agreements. Next question: Who is going to host your site? My advice is to know whom you are dealing with, and then make sure that if something goes wrong you have an exit strategy. In other words, do your due diligence. Then hope for the best and...
Business
Quick Query: Jeremy Hanks

May 1, 2006 • Kerry Murdock

What's Doba.com? Doba.com helps simplify product sourcing. That is, we streamline product sourcing for the emerging market of web-based entrepreneurs starting and growing a retail business. Our web-based platform empowers entrepreneurs to find and sell products, and suppliers to connec...
Fraud Prevention
Payment Processing: Choose the System that Fits

April 1, 2006 • PEC Staff

One of the most critical decisions business owners have to make is how they are going to process payments from their website. Entrepreneurs frequently find themselves asking if a merchant account is what they need or if they need a private payment system (a “PPS”) such as PayPal or the ...
Fraud Prevention
eCommerce Fraud: Build a Human Firewall

April 1, 2006 • Michael A. Cox

There is a fellow from Europe named Kevin Mitnick, who can find your Social Security number online in 15 seconds. He was the hacker who was elevated to “computer terrorist” status by the FBI and Interpol. They caught him and put him in jail for five years, but there are thousands like h...
Fraud Prevention
Winning the Fight Against Click Fraud

April 1, 2006 • PEC Staff

If somebody were to tell you that 20% of your advertising budget was being wasted on fraud, would you be worried? If you advertise on pay-per-click search engines, such as Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture), MIVA, or others, you have reason to be concerned. Acc...
Business
Authorize.Net President Roy Banks

April 1, 2006 • Michael A. Cox

The credit card industry has come a long way since 1951, when Diners Club issued a credit card to about 200 members, which they could use at any of 27 restaurants in the New York City area. Then in the 1960s Bank of America began issuing Bank Americard, then came MasterCharge, American ...
Business
TheGroceryGame.com Scores With Coupons

April 1, 2006 • PEC Staff

Owner: Teri Gault URL:Thegrocerygame.com Established: 1999 Products: Weekly list of grocery coupons; system for saving on groceries. Shopping Cart: Custom Payment Gateway: Authorize.Net Quote: "I calculated that I made 80 cents per hour my first year." When Teri Gault and her fami...
Business
Quick Query: Comodo’s Melih Abdulhayoglu

April 1, 2006 • Kerry Murdock

Internet commerce depends on safe and secure transactions. Because of that, we’ve asked a few questions to Melih Abdulhayoglu, an Internet security expert and CEO of Comodo, a leading provider of security software and encryption products for smaller ecommerce merchants. PeC: What does...
Business
Web Development Contracts

April 1, 2006 • John W. Dozier, Jr.

We get an interesting mix of client inquiries each week. Sometimes we are asked to draft a “simple” or “basic” contract, neither of which really exist in the online world. We don’t even attempt to do that. Or, in the other extreme, we are asked to review and provide a legal analysis of ...
Business
MIVA CEO Craig Pisaris-Henderson

March 1, 2006 • Michael A. Cox

The concept is as old as sales itself. Somebody delivers qualified customer leads to you and you pay them for each lead. It is up to you to convert that lead into a sale. It’s not too hard to comprehend. Prior to the mid-90s, in the normal sales world, lead generation was done with door...
Business
Recoverysuperstore.com Offers a Web of Support

March 1, 2006 • Michael A. Cox

Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi. So was Anthony Baggett. Elvis reached the pinnacle of success and then died of drug abuse in 1977. Anthony was a success and an addict, but his story is different—it’s one of hope. Anthony Baggett was, by all measure, a successful advertis...
Business
Quick Query – Scott Peterson

March 1, 2006 • Brian Getting

The Streamline Sales Tax Governing Board is the new, multi-state agency charged with simplifying the collection of state and local sales taxes. Since this will impact ecommerce businesses, we’ve asked its Executive Director, Scott Peterson, a few questions. Tell us, once more, what the...
Business
Affiliate Marketers

March 1, 2006 • John W. Dozier, Jr.

Over half of our law firm’s practice involves affiliate marketing. If we are not setting up an affiliate marketing program, we are involved in claims relating to affiliate misconduct. On the one hand, the riches to be realized by your merchant site through a successful and well managed ...
Business
Baron Bob: Wonderfully Wacky, Marvelously Successful

February 1, 2006 • Michael A. Cox

Bob Brooks got a business education at the prestigious Johnson Wales University in Rhode Island. Now he runs a $1-million-a-year ecommerce company on the Internet. It all makes perfect sense and all seems to be as it should. But to borrow a phrase from broadcast legend Paul Harvey, “now...
Business
Your eCommerce Activities Could be Criminal

February 1, 2006 • John W. Dozier, Jr.

The online world is an interesting place today for many reasons. Remember the old western movies when the cowboys came into town for several days of mischief? After weeks on the range, they would often decide on their own what laws to follow with predictable results leading to mayhem an...
Business
Relentlessimprovement.com Succeeds with Nutritional Supplements

January 1, 2006 • Michael A. Cox

Peter Hitesman was a loan officer for a banking institution in what he would consider his past life. It was a job that required an extreme attention to detail, intense customer service, and often times long hours. But he traded that all in one day for a new life as the owner of his own ...
Business
Ten Things You Absolutely, Positively Need to Know When You Get Sued

January 1, 2006 • John W. Dozier, Jr.

It’s one of those unanticipated business problems. The cost of dealing with it can be overwhelming. The risk of loss to you and your business is huge. While you are in the middle of managing ecommerce operations, sales, billing, advertising, fulfillment, and the day to day challenges in...
Shipping & Fulfillment
Order Management Software Saves Time, Reduces Errors

January 1, 2006 • Michael A. Cox

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” When Charles Dickens opened his classic A Tale of Two Cities with those words he was thinking only about the French Revolution. But his words strike equally apropos in the entrepreneurial revolution of the 21st century. It is the ...
Shipping & Fulfillment
The Shipping News: Plenty of Carriers for eCommerce Companies

December 1, 2005 • Michael A. Cox

Talk about your needle in a haystack. When you ship one package through the Fedex system it becomes one of more than six million that the company formerly known as Federal Express moves about the globe every day. If you shipped it on UPS it would be one of 14 million handled by the com...