Merchant Voice
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Business
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Merchant Voice
Finding your brand’s voice, and its communication channel
February 6, 2017 • Peter Keller
I launched FringeSport in 2010. It’s taken almost all of that time to find a voice for the brand and a primary channel to communicate that voice. I struggled with ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
3 early mistakes in building my business
January 29, 2017 • Peter Keller
When I talk to entrepreneurs who have a “side hustle” — a side venture to their full-time employment — many times they ask when to leave their “safe” job and ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
The challenge of setting up a second website
January 28, 2017 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth
There must be many businesses that launch with a specific customer target market in mind, and then receive orders from quite different groups. When I launched My Wedding Décor in April ...
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Amazon & Marketplaces
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Merchant Voice
The dreaded Amazon A-Z claim, part 2
January 7, 2017 • Richard Stubbings
There are still readers who are commenting on “The dreaded Amazon A-Z claim,” my post from May 2013. I will not repeat that post here. But in light of some of ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
When an ecommerce side hustle becomes real
January 2, 2017 • Peter Keller
I’ve been talking with many budding ecommerce entrepreneurs lately. A big question I’m asked is along the lines of “when is it time to quit your day job and focus ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
For 2017: Better marketing, better products, better automation
December 30, 2016 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth
I have been using the holidays to plan a three-point strategy for 2017. Create better targeted marketing. Fine-tune my product range and pricing for better profitability. Streamline customer service with automated emails where ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
How long to wait for a return on investment?
November 29, 2016 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth
One of the challenges of an online retailer is to determine the best advertising channels. In addition to Facebook advertising, I decided to concentrate My Wedding Décor on a few wedding directories to ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
Does President Trump affect ecommerce?
November 10, 2016 • Richard Stubbings
November 9 in the U.S. likely felt about the same to many folks there as June 24 did here in the U.K. We had Brexit. The U.S. has Donald Trump.
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Business
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Merchant Voice
A blueprint for Black Friday planning
November 1, 2016 • Peter Keller
Black Friday is many things. It’s a great day for deals, a garish celebration of consumerism, and a huge opportunity and a huge headache for retailers. It’s been pivotal in ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
Wedding rentals (and order thresholds) boost revenue
October 24, 2016 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth
When I launched My Wedding Decor in April 2015, the site had just 80 or so products for sale. Three weeks passed and I received my first order, from a Sydney-based ...
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Amazon & Marketplaces
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Merchant Voice
Implications of Amazon’s repricing software
October 13, 2016 • Richard Stubbings
In “The end of automated Amazon repricing?,” my post from 2014, I raised the prospect of Amazon creating its own repricing tool. Well, that tool now exists. It’s called “Amazon ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
Technology stack for FringeSport
October 2, 2016 • Peter Keller
I’ve read columnist Eric Bandholz’s post on the technology stack for his company, Beardbrand. In this article, I’ll address the same for my company, FringeSport. These are the tools that ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
Developing a new market for our art
September 28, 2016 • David Sasson
At the heart of every ecommerce business is the need to sell goods or services at a profit. In the past year, we at overstockArt have been considering how to grow our ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
Whom do I work for?
September 20, 2016 • Richard Stubbings
One of the attractions to being an independent online retailer is to be your own boss. You supposedly answer to no one and set your own hours. But the reality ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
How I maximize my holiday promotions
September 15, 2016 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth
The critical holiday selling season is almost here. Here are five items that I’m focusing on to get the most of my holiday marketing activities. Offer coupons for additional info. Offer ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
A tale of two domain purchases
August 31, 2016 • Peter Keller
We’ve all been there. We have a great idea for a company and we log on to a domain registrar. We type our dream domain name, hit enter, and bam. Someone is sitting ...
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Content Marketing
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Merchant Voice
The ultimate content marketing strategy
August 22, 2016 • Eric Bandholz
The idea of using content to help drive ecommerce sales can sometimes feel daunting. Today’s digital landscape is a 24-hour news cycle, with social media platforms that never sleep. Content ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
Insurance and other boring (but crucial) expenses
August 12, 2016 • Richard Stubbings
There is a temptation for many start-up businesses to cut corners and spend all of their money on inventory. After all, it is the stock that sells, which brings in the ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
Comparing puppies to customers
July 29, 2016 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth
Last month, my husband and I began raising a black Labrador puppy. Next year, we will give one-year-old Whimsy to Guide Dogs Victoria for intensive training to help assist a person ...
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Google Ads
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Merchant Voice
Our experiment in eliminating AdWords
July 29, 2016 • Peter Keller
Back in the day, I managed a $500,000 annual pay-per-click advertising budget for CompactAppliance.com, a retailer of small-space appliances. That business was built on the pillars of PPC ads and ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
From Magento to WooCommerce, 1 year on
July 27, 2016 • Richard Stubbings
Just over a year ago, I moved my website from Magento to WooCommerce. I described my process of evaluating and, ultimately, selecting WooCommerce in a 5-part series here on Practical ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
Use collaborations to expand reach, revenue
July 5, 2016 • Eric Bandholz
Entrepreneurs tend to focus on their own companies and how to build them from within. While this focus is a major factor in growing a business, don’t overlook the benefits of ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
To grow a business, work less (but better)
June 28, 2016 • David Sasson
I recently read a book that made a great impression on me. The book is Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, by Greg McKeown. In this post, I’ll offer an ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
Will Brexit affect my U.K.-based ecommerce business?
June 28, 2016 • Richard Stubbings
To read the newspapers and listen to the television commentators, some would think that the surprise vote in the U.K. to leave the E.U. is a disaster, to change everything.
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Amazon & Marketplaces
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Merchant Voice
Ecommerce brands vs. Amazon sellers
June 27, 2016 • Peter Keller
I’ve worked in ecommerce for 15 years. When I started, those of us in the industry made the rules as we went along. No one knew for sure what would ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
5 ways to alienate your customers
June 22, 2016 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth
In a single month, I’ve encountered the following five instances of poor customer service from online companies. All could have been easily avoided. Silence after a payment. If you don’t contact ...
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Amazon & Marketplaces
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Merchant Voice
For marketplace selling, know written and unwritten rules
June 18, 2016 • Richard Stubbings
If you are selling on a third-party site like Amazon or Ebay, it is important to understand the rules — the written rules and the unwritten ones. The unwritten rules ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
Developing custom, manufactured products
June 10, 2016 • Eric Bandholz
Building a business requires a lot of moving parts. From cultivating relationships with peers and customers to branding and marketing, there are many factors that go into being successful. But ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
A tale of overzealous security
June 5, 2016 • Richard Stubbings
I will be publishing my normal monthly post in a week or so. Until then, I wanted to share some stupidity with you, following from “Hacked off” and “Are your ...
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Business
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Merchant Voice
Hacked off
May 15, 2016 • Richard Stubbings
All ecommerce sites are vulnerable to being hacked. No matter how large you are, no matter how much you invest in security and infrastructure, you remain vulnerable. If hackers can penetrate ...