Ecommerce News Feed

Increase Holiday Profits with Drop Shipping, Better Inventory Management

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 03:17:45 +0000

Holiday sales are vital for most ecommerce merchants. But the selling process can be a management headache when a merchant is juggling many different suppliers, sales channels, and stocking requirements.

Google Instant Search: The Impact for Ecommerce Site Owners

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 23:42:23 +0000

This week Google rolled out Instant Search, a revolutionary AJAX-based technology that dynamically updates the search results page as users type in each character of their queries. Instant Search changes the fundamentals of how a user will search on Google.

Financial Management Key to Small Businesses, Says NetSuite Exec

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 19:42:49 +0000

Financial management is critical to ecommerce companies. But the tools to manage financial matters vary, and many of them don't automatically integrate with a merchant's ecommerce site, making the financial tracking and reporting process even more burdensome.

Developing a Flash Music Player, Part 1

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:59:26 +0000

Music or podcast players are popping up on some important ecommerce sites.

Email Marketing: 3 ‘Best Practices’ to Ignore

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:15:22 +0000

I am the email marketing manager for S&S Worldwide, a large retailer of crafts and school supplies. Over the years, I have encountered many "email best practices." But like Snap Bracelets, Cabbage Patch Kids and Atari, trends change. And email best practices, I've learned, do not apply to every company or every situation.

Quick Tips & Shortcuts: Manipulating Anchor Points in Adobe Illustrator

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 20:17:21 +0000

The two tools that I use the most in Adobe Illustrator are the Pen tool and the Direct Selection tool.

And I have a few tips and tricks for using these tools that I will share with you in this second installment of my "Quick Tips & Shortcuts" tutorial series.

Develop a Store Finder with the Google Maps API, Part 3

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 19:53:56 +0000

Providing store location information is an important site feature for online purveyors that also sell from brick-and-mortar stores, so taking advantage of Google's powerful Maps JavaScript API is a great way to transform what might have been a static list of addresses into an interactive map application.

This article is part three of a tutorial mini-series created to demonstrate how to use

Performance Metrics for Ecommerce, Part One

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 19:12:06 +0000

Performance metrics can help ecommerce businesses measure progress and assess financial and marketing health.

But with so much data available from tools like Google Analytics, it can be hard to know what to measure or even what those measurements mean. With this in mind, I put together a list of the metrics I pay attention to most.

How to Choose the Right E-commerce Designer

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 16:00:56 +0000

If you're building a new site or redesigning an existing one, chances are good that you'll be researching and interviewing web designers to create the right front-end design experience for your site. But good websites don't come cheap. How can you make sure you're not wasting your money? How can you choose the right e-commerce designer?

August 2010 Survey Results: Conversion Rates

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 02:15:36 +0000

The August 2010 Practical eCommerce survey polled readers about conversion. We wondered how many of our readers regularly track conversion rates on their sites, what percentage of visitors are converting into buyers, and what might be preventing visitors from making a purchase.

Our conversion survey asked four questions, with a comment section for each response.

Ten Must-Do Items This Holiday Season

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 00:28:59 +0000

It’s September and the holiday season has already begun for merchants and shoppers. In a recent Practical eCommerce webinar entitled “Ten Ecommerce Strategies for Holiday Success,” Make-a-Store Chief Marketing Officer Derek Stringfellow offered 10 tips merchants can apply now for more sales this holiday season.

Advanced Character Illustration, Part 1: The Introduction

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:47:03 +0000

Character design is a growing trend in web graphics and an important way to add a little life and branding to a site.

Two sites that offer some great examples of character design are Tapbots, which sells iPhone applications, and Firehost, a PCI-compliant hosting provider.

As a result of this trend, we have received a few requests for tutorials about creating advanced characters.

Social Media Improves Online Trust: 4 Tips

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:12:48 +0000

"Trust" is likely the most defining factor when it comes to selling products online. Consumers will not purchase products from a merchant that they mistrust.

Social media can help overcome a consumer's reluctance to purchase products due to lack of trust. It can foster interaction between an ecommerce site and its customers. It can facilitate customer reviews, feedback ratings, and shopping experiences.

How to Set Up a Facebook Fan Page for Your Business

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 18:50:25 +0000

Setting up a Facebook Fan Page is an important step for any business to take. Here are the steps to setting up a Facebook Page for your business. Remember, a Facebook page will require additional time to update. Be prepared to dedicate extra time to maintaining your page and interacting with fans or work with a firm that can manage your Facebook presence for you.

Steps to Setting up a Facebook Fan Page:

Volunteer for a Free Mobile-Optimized Ecommerce Site

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:07:41 +0000

Practical eCommerce is looking for an ecommerce merchant to participate in our upcoming mobile-optimization series. In this feature, we will work with a web developer to optimize a live ecommerce site, step-by-step. We'll file installments here on how the process works and the hurdles to overcome.

High-Tech Website Design

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 22:28:11 +0000

Computers, peripherals, MP4 players, televisions, game consoles, software and more can be purchased online.

The PEC Review: Wildfire Interactive for Online Contests

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 20:09:44 +0000

Contest marketing is an excellent way to engage customers, build brand, and get leads for newsletters and other promotions. And in the age of social media marketing, an online contest can garner thousands of entries.

Unfortunately some popular social media sites, like Facebook, prohibit contests and sweepstakes in their terms and conditions.

Add to Cart Buttons…For FREE!!!

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 17:18:42 +0000

I love making buttons. They're fun, there's a huge variety, and they make an incredible difference to a site. The size, color, shape, and style of your buttons can trigger a difference the conversion rate of an e-commerce site. Buttons that stand out from the rest of the site's designs are essential - if they blend in and match too closely, users overlook them.

Ecommerce News Around the Web for September 3, 2010

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 23:21:59 +0000

"Ecommerce News Around the Web" is our weekly review of articles, blog posts and other news items that could interest ecommerce merchants.

Shrinking USPS Postage Labels Not Recommended - AuctionBytes

Merchants who print their own postage labels can often save money on shipping costs. But what if the label is too big for the package? Can’t you just scale it down?

Develop a Store Finder with the Google Maps API, Part 2

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:31:44 +0000

Merchants that sell both online and from physical stores will no doubt want to list physical locations on their websites.

In this tutorial series, I will demonstrate how to create a store locator using version 3 of the Google Maps JavaScript API, PHP, lots of JavaScript, and a MySQL database.

SEO: Unique Content Good for Search Engines, Good for Consumers

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:57:36 +0000

Unique, valuable content is a critical part of a successful SEO strategy. That is especially the case for ecommerce sites that utilize non-unique stock product descriptions from the manufacturer’s database. But, I’m often asked if there’s a faster, cheaper, free way to generate content.

No Shortcuts for Unique Content

The short answer is "no." SEO can’t produce gold from straw.

Conversion Tip: Put Facebook 'Like' on Product Detail Pages

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:19:29 +0000

Editor's Note: Charles Nicholls is an ecommerce conversion expert and the founder and chief technical officer of SeeWhy, a conversion and abandonment-recovery firm.

Ten Great Ecommerce Ideas for September 2010

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:36:05 +0000

Practical eCommerce asks industry insiders each month to share a great, innovative idea that could help an ecommerce company.

Create Custom Vector Buttons in Adobe Illustrator

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:45:27 +0000

Buttons are one of the most common elements found on web pages today.

Features of High Converting Websites

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:28:42 +0000

Practical Ecommerce recently posted an article about the the similarities and differences between the top 10 converting websites. The article breaks down 10 popular websites; most of them are quite well-known, such as Land’s End, Office Depot and QVC.

Social Media to Change Ecommerce?

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 03:21:02 +0000

"Social commerce" is the merging of ecommerce with social media sites, such as Facebook. It could change the way consumers buy, and retailers sell.

In an upcoming webinar entitled "500 Million People and Growing: The Facebook Conversation Turns to Commerce," we will help merchants understand the social commerce landscape and prepare them for what lies ahead.

Ask an Expert: Does the Magento Platform Create SEO Obstacles?

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:24:54 +0000

"Ask an Expert" is an occasional feature where we ask ecommerce experts questions from online merchants. For this installment, Andrew Casey of 877MyJuicer.com asks about search engine optimization and the Magento platform.

For the answer, we turn to our own senior contributing editor, Armando Roggio.

Watercolor Brush Options in Adobe Photoshop

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:12:04 +0000

The simplest tools can often produce startling results.

In this video tutorial, I will show you how to use a simple watercolor brush set in Adobe Photoshop to create a unique photo effect.

To begin, I will open up a paper texture image that I will use to bring out the watercolor effect. Next, I will show you how to import a custom brush set into Photoshop.

Good APIs Make or Break Plugin Opportunities

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:10:35 +0000

In a recent Ecommerce Developer webinar entitled “Plug-in, Cash Out: How to Effectively Build and Market Your Plugins,” it became obvious that the usefulness of an API really depends on how well conceived and documented it is.

August 2010 Top Ten: Our Most Popular Posts

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:17:32 +0000

Each month, we compile a list of the ten most popular articles we published at Practical eCommerce that month, based on the number of page views. Here are our ten most popular articles for August 2010.

Top 10 Converting Websites: The Similarities and Differences

We compared ten top-converting websites to determine what they have in common, and how they differ.

Developing Your First Web Video

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Those of you who follow us know that we are making a big push into web video. As video delivery has become affordable for everyone, deploying video should be part of any Ecommerce company’s marketing mix.

But delivery is easier said than done. The Old Spice guy makes it look so easy. But try turning on the camera, looking into the lens, and you might find you are overcome by a case of incurable silence.

Here are some tips to get you over the initial challenges of web video creation.

Secure Ecommerce Shopping Cart Product Selection Tips

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 03:27:03 +0000

Four Apps to Create Facebook 'Welcome' Pages

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:36:44 +0000

Thousands of ecommerce businesses have Facebook Fan pages. But making those pages stand out from competitors' pages is a challenge. One of the ways to distinguish yours is through the use of a custom landing page, also known as a Welcome tab.

In the past, to create a landing page you would need to know Facebook markup language, HTML, and staticFBML.

August 2010: Our Ten Most Read Posts

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:56:40 +0000

Inspirational showcase articles dominate our list of the top ten most read Ecommerce Developer articles in August 2010.

At the top of the list is a post about the Big Commerce ecommerce platform. In the post, we see some inspiration examples of the platform in use, but there is also a discussion of how the company's marketers used quotes from several leading publications.

Overseas Expansion: Tips from a Global Exec

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:05:50 +0000

Once merchants are successful in domestic markets, many of them weigh the benefits of expanding their operations abroad.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising: Six Metrics that Drive Performance

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 01:38:21 +0000

Editor's Note: We welcome Scott Smigler as our new pay-per-click advertising contributor.

Forty Fabulous Fonts for Website Design

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:56:47 +0000

The CSS @font-face rule and a number of web-font services make it possible to use just about any font in a web page design.

In this showcase, I have collected forty great looking fonts that you can start using in your designs now.

Goudy Bookletter 1911

Blackstock Pro

Anisette STD Petite

Prociono

Abadi Bold

Clarendon Text Pro

Proxima Nova

Serif Beta

Amasis MT Italic

The PEC Review: Fontspring, the Typographical Fountain

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:21:12 +0000

The very letters and words on a web page can help build a brand and engage customers. Thanks to better browser support and several new services, the Internet is being filled with rich and diverse fonts even now.

For years, so-called web safe fonts—meaning the most common fonts supported by nearly all Internet users—have seemingly held web page design captive.

Changes for the week ending 2010-08-28

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 00:08:00 +0000

Changes for the week ending 2010-08-28:

FoxyCart v0.7.0: Subscriptions, Validation, and More

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 23:26:00 +0000

We are happy to announce our latest release, FoxyCart v0.7.0. This release was a long time in coming, but introduces significant recurring billing improvements including PayPal Standard subscription handling; advanced link and form hashing to prevent tampering; faster pageloads with our Content Delivery Network; and much more.

Let us know if you have any issues upgrading in our forum.

Ecommerce News Around the Web for August 27, 2010

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 00:36:03 +0000

"Ecommerce News Around the Web" is our weekly review of articles, blog posts and other news items that could interest ecommerce merchants.

Keep Them Coming Back - Michael Gray Graywolf's SEO Blog

Once a shopper has made a purchase from your website, how do you keep that customer coming back for more?

iPhone Memory Management

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 19:41:14 +0000

iPhone application development can be very different from creating applications that will run on servers with lots of storage.

iPhone 4, as an example, packs a whopping 512MB of total memory, which is great for a smart phone. But earlier models included just 128MB and, as a best practice, your iPhone application should not use more than 46MB.

Holiday Tips for 2010, Part 5

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 19:04:22 +0000

The 2010 holiday season is nearly here. With that in mind, we are publishing a few good holiday-selling tips, from experienced ecommerce professionals, each week. Our fifth, and final, installment, is below.

Anticipate Microsoft, Yahoo!

Google as a One-Stop Shop

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:09:57 +0000

When was the last time you did a product search on Google? What did that SERP (Search Engine Results Page) look like? Amazon and eBay have been controlling the eCommerce game for long enough. And now the most powerful search engine online, Google, is making strides to enter the Product Search and eCommerce market at NO cost. There’s no better time than now to begin revamping your online store to ensure that your products are listed on the organic product search results page.

New Firefox Release: Faster, Better Video, Different Look

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 00:34:44 +0000

Last week, the Mozilla Foundation released a new version of its Firefox 4 web browser. The new version offers better performance, improved tab management, more HTML5 video support, synchronization, and a significantly different look.

Develop a Store Finder with the Google Maps API, Part 1

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 20:16:35 +0000

Google's powerful and popular Maps API is an excellent foundation for developing a store-or-location-finding web application.

This is useful, since many online retailers are really multi-channel merchants, selling their wares from physical locations as well as virtual storefronts.

Lessons Learned: Candle Retailer Regrets Custom Shopping Cart

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 19:10:33 +0000

“Lessons Learned” is a series where we ask ecommerce business owners to share their experiences. For this installment, we visited with Logan Suttman, CEO of Black & Light Co., which sells candles that glow from top to bottom when lit.

Suttman's mother started the business in 2007, having retired early from a long teaching career.

Conversion Tip: Reduce Abandonment by Publishing Voucher Codes

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 04:08:06 +0000

Editor's Note: We continue our "Conversion Tip" series from Charles Nicholls, the founder and chief strategy officer of SeeWhy, a conversion and abandonment-recovery firm.

Comparison Shopping Engines: Strategies for Smaller Merchants

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:58:11 +0000

Comparison shopping engines can drive traffic to an ecommerce site. But there are over 120 such engines, and how to decide which of them to use and whether to use them at all are questions many merchants have. We spoke with Scot Wingo, CEO of ChannelAdvisor, a leading ecommerce software and services provider, about the use of comparison shopping engines for small to mid-size ecommerce firms.

Design Unique Twitter Bird Characters in Adobe Illustrator

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:46:54 +0000

As Twitter becomes a more prominent part of online marketing, many merchants are choosing to customize their website’s Twitter link. One of the best ways to do this is with a custom Twitter bird character.

In this video tutorial, I will be showing you how develop a custom Twitter bird character in Adobe Illustrator CS4.

Good character design requires some forethought.

Add Custom PHTML Templates to Magento CMS Pages

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:44:14 +0000

Developing custom PHP (PHTML) template files for a Magento package or theme offers more flexibility and greater latitude than simply updating existing files.

But sometimes traversing the popular platform's more than 10,000 files and 3,300 folders can be a little challenging.

APIs: What Online Merchants Need to Know

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 19:02:38 +0000

Editor's Note: In our "Need to Know" series, we explain complex web topics on an executive-level, "need to know" basis.

Facebook 'Places' Helps Local Businesses

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:30:57 +0000

Facebook recently rolled out "Places," a location-based sharing application popularized by such startups as Foursquare and Gowalla.

Build a Custom Masked Pattern Element In Adobe Photoshop

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:04:48 +0000

Sometimes the simplest techniques can bring out the greatest results in a design. In this video tutorial, I will be showing how to create a paint splatter element out of a diagonal line pattern in Adobe Photoshop CS4 that can add a lot to a design.

To begin, I will show you how to create and set up a new document to best complement the lined paint splatter element.

Language Translation: Test Product Names before Entering New Countries

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:15:36 +0000

A product’s name, for all intents and purposes, is the product. It’s what consumers grow to trust and identify with. The name is vital in building a brand’s identity over time. But with international markets, there is an added complexity, as the message represented by words and symbols can vary significantly between countries and cultures.

Conversion: Pros and Cons of Four Checkout Methods

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:56:05 +0000

There are hundreds of studies on the subject of shopping cart abandonment. Companies offering recovery-type services often rely on these statistics to tell us how their products can help. What are missing from the big picture, however, are the various reasons for abandonment.

ProStores that Look Professional

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:23:08 +0000

Often when we look for inspiration, we also find opportunity.

That is what happened to me this week.

The PEC Review: Feedingo Organizes Feeds, Keeps Me Informed

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:18:38 +0000

Informed ecommerce entrepreneurs must stay on top of industry news, web trends, and best practices. To achieve this, some wander around the web from one blog or site to another, or they absorb dozens of email newsletters.

It would be better if all of the best blog posts, articles, and videos came to you.

Design 1, 2, 3: A Good Cup of Joe in the Shopping Cart

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:00:39 +0000

Unlike the other 99% of designers in the world, I don’t drink coffee. Well, that is to say I didn’t. Recently though, I’ve been a regular chai, latte, frappuccino drinking, from breakfast to dinner, designer. And so far, it’s been pretty tasty and only a little jittery. It’s fair to say though, that I know nothing about a good cup of joe, but I do know a thing or two about user-friendly, well-designed eCommerce sites.

Changes for the week ending 2010-08-21

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 00:08:00 +0000

Changes for the week ending 2010-08-21

Live Chat: Magento's Roy Rubin

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 04:16:32 +0000

Before it launched Magento, in 2007, Varien was a small Los Angeles based development firm. It focused largely on ecommerce clients and its CEO, Roy Rubin, would occasionally contribute to Practical eCommerce, then a printed magazine.

Fast forward to 2010 and Varien is now, legally, Magento.

Ecommerce News Around the Web for August 20, 2010

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 22:36:25 +0000

"Ecommerce News Around the Web" is our weekly review of articles, blog posts and other news items that could interest ecommerce merchants.

Mexican Market Offers ‘Boundless Opportunities’ for Online Ads - eMarketer Blog

Online advertising in Mexico lags far behind the U.S., U.K., and Canada, says market researcher eMarketer.

Working with Google's New Font API

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 20:13:50 +0000

Google now offers a Font API that allows developers to include a limited number of @font-face-rule embedded fonts from Google's content delivery network in their projects.

The CSS @font-face rule allows a web designer or developer to embed fonts directly into a web page and, in this way, use any font for which a license is available.

Holiday Tips for 2010, Part 4

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 19:39:52 +0000

The 2010 holiday season is nearly here. With that in mind, we are publishing a few good holiday-selling tips each week. Our fourth installment, provided by experienced ecommerce professionals, is below.

Test for Usability Issues

“Find usability issues by using new crowdsourcing services like uTest. Make sure your site isn't standing between you and lots of holiday sales.

Content Delivery Network’s (CDN) and Why You Should Be Using One…

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 16:03:24 +0000

Are you using a CDN to help power your eCommerce web site? If not, you should be thinking about it for the 2010 holiday season. What is a CDN? It is short for “Content Delivery Network” or “Content Distribution Network.” This is a network of servers that replicates parts or all of your site across the Internet and delivers it to your visitors in the most efficient way possible.

Website Shopping Cart SEO Don’ts

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 04:16:55 +0000

Top 10 Converting Websites: The Similarities and Differences

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 01:03:47 +0000

We continue our analysis of the top 10 converting websites by looking at the key similarities and differences between them. This follows from "Debunking Myths from the Top 10 Converting Websites," our introductory piece on the top 10 converting sites.

Across the ten different sites, below, and using Amazon for comparison, some clear patterns emerge. What stands out most is that all 10 are direct marketers.

Databases: What Online Merchants Need to Know

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 20:34:52 +0000

Editor's Note: We continue our "Need to Know" series, where we explain complex web topics on an executive-level, "need to know" basis.

Custom Flash Preloader, Part 2

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 20:04:23 +0000

In Flash, a preloader can give a user good information about the progress of a download.

Last week, in Part 1 of this series, I demonstrated how to build a custom AssetLoader class that loaded an image and placed the image on the stage. This week, in this Part 2, I'm going to finish it up by displaying the progress of the image in the form of a progress bar and percentage text.

Nuts and Bolts of Holiday Selling

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 05:20:57 +0000

The factors that determine a successful holiday season are oftentimes not the creative or extravagant ones, but rather the nuts and bolts of addressing critical areas of your business.

Legal: When Merchants Are Liable for Selling Counterfeit Brands

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:59:48 +0000

This is the first installment of a two-part series regarding protection against counterfeit products being sold on the Internet. The first part of the series, below, discusses how online retailers and auction houses can protect themselves from unwittingly selling counterfeit products. The second part of the series will discuss protecting your product or website brand from being counterfeited.

Quick Tips & Shortcuts: Custom Keyboard Shortcuts and Workspaces

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 20:12:07 +0000

Customizing workspaces and keyboard shortcuts for Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator can significantly speed up the design process.

Several weeks ago, I received an email from Ecommerce Developer reader Paula Biles, who suggested a tutorial series on quick tips and shortcuts in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. What a great idea.

Profile: Retailer Spends Little Money for Big Social Media Impact

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 20:03:59 +0000

Editor's Note: For the past few weeks, Paul Chaney, our social media director, has addressed the integration of Facebook with ecommerce. He has reviewed a number of applications, including Wildfire and Fan Appz, both of which provide sweepstakes and coupons. He's also reviewed fully-embedded Facebook ecommerce carts, such as Payvment and Milyoni.

Building a Magento Theme Start to Finish, Part 24: The Final Episode

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 20:00:42 +0000

The Pine Theme will be complete with a few more changes to the checkout pages.

For the past few months, I have been describing the process of building a Magento theme.

Synchronized Applications Transformed Two Businesses

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 04:24:26 +0000

InkJetSuperstore.com and Wrigleyville Sports were once losing customers and sales. Now they are both successful and growing. In fact, just prior to a recent webinar entitled “The Dynamic Merchant: 5 Killer Strategies for Growing Your Online Business," InkJetSuperstore.com CEO Ilan Douek spilled the beans about his prior day’s order volume.

Conversion Tip: Pop-up Shopping Carts Drive Higher Order Amounts

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:32:17 +0000

Editor's Note: We continue our "Conversion Tip" series from Charles Nicholls, the founder and chief strategy officer of SeeWhy, a conversion and abandonment-recovery firm. For this week's installment, Nicholls focuses on a new trend, pop-up shopping carts.

Many shopping carts take the visitor straight to the checkout page when a customer adds a single product to it.

Make Your Own Vector Textures

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 19:51:38 +0000

Modern and grunge site designs often use vector textures or brushes to add details and depth.

Knowing how to create your own custom vector textures can set a designer apart and create the opportunity for more custom designs.

In this video tutorial, I will show you how to create a high quality vector texture from a stock photograph using both Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator CS4.

To begin, I wil

Why Your Hosting-Design-Marketing Team Should Be Under One Roof

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 19:04:26 +0000

Google Docs: Word Processing, Collaboration, More

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:57:55 +0000

Google offers a variety of useful free tools merchants can use in place of other more costly software. One of these is Google Docs, a free word processing tool with plenty of room for file storage and many unique tools unmatched by other word processors. The most important of these is the collaborative tools where users can easily share documents with other users.

Email Marketing: The Three-Part Plan

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 00:43:32 +0000

Editor's Note: We welcome Carolyn Nye as our new email-marketing contributor. She's marketing manager with S&S Worldwide, a direct marketer of arts and crafts, sporting goods and educational supplies.

Ask an Expert: Do No-Follow Links Help with SEO?

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 23:34:10 +0000

"Ask an Expert" is an occasional feature where we ask ecommerce experts questions from online merchants. For this installment, we address a question about the search-engine-optimization value to no-follow links on social bookmarking sites, such as Digg and StumbleUpon.

Eleven OpenCart Stores, Open for Business

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:19:50 +0000

OpenCart is a free and surprisingly robust PHP-based, open-source ecommerce platform aimed at being both feature rich and user friendly.

The platform's administration panel is very functional, even reminiscent of some of the enterprise-class ecommerce platforms I have seen.

The PEC Review: Shopify

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 18:56:30 +0000

There are nearly 600 different shopping cart solutions to choose from.

While many of these carts are functional, a relative few rise to the top in terms of their ease of use, how much creative freedom they allow, and how well they help a merchant present their products.

Shopify is one of these top carts. It can help provide a solid foundation for an ecommerce business.

Changes for the week ending 2010-08-14

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 23:47:00 +0000

Changes for the week ending 2010-08-14

Ecommerce News Around the Web for August 13, 2010

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 23:17:54 +0000

"Ecommerce News Around the Web" is our weekly review of articles, blog posts and other news items that could interest ecommerce merchants.

Web Privacy Not All That Private - StorefrontBacktalk

A report released this week by research teams at Stanford and Carnegie Mellon says the major web browsers are not nearly as private as they claim to be.

Building a Magento Theme Start to Finish, Part 23: User Account and Checkout Styles

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 19:41:59 +0000

With the Pine Theme rapidly nearing completion, it is time to finish the style descriptions for the user account sections and begin working on the checkout pages.

In the previous episode of this ongoing series, I made template changes to the accounts page, so the account pages already have the general Pine Theme look and feel.

Holiday Tips for 2010, Part 3

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 19:35:06 +0000

The 2010 holiday season is nearly here. With that in mind, Practical eCommerce is publishing a few good holiday-selling tips each week. Our third installment, provided by experienced ecommerce professionals, is below.

Be Everywhere

“Signup and post products in shopping comparison engines. As much as 70 percent of a store's annual sales can occur in the fourth quarter.

ProStores Upgrades Platform, Simplifies Store Design and Management

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 00:20:54 +0000

Editor's Note: Ecommerce service providers frequently launch new, interesting products, or issue upgrades to existing ones. We address these new products and upgrades periodically, and in this installment Contributing Editor Lisa Morgan explains eBay Prostores' new upgrade to its hosted ecommerce platform.

Building a Custom Flash Preloader, Part 1

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 20:14:23 +0000

For the next couple of weeks I'll be explaining how to build a custom preloader that will display the progress of an image as it loads. This is the first installment of the series.

In this tutorial, I'll create an AssetLoader class and use the built-in Loader class (part of ActionScript) to load our image.

The Future of Your Conversion Funnel

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 19:21:07 +0000

As online merchants we all want to attract and retain as many profitable customers as possible at the lowest cost. However, the way we’re marketing ourselves may be getting in the way.

In a recent webinar entitled "How to Win this Holiday Season: The Future of Your Marketing Funnel," we discussed a few common pitfalls as they relate to branding, competition, partners, and marketing practices.

Getting Started in Ecommerce: What's a Shopping Cart?

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 00:43:43 +0000

The ecommerce shopping cart is a software package that accepts customer payment and shipping information and facilitates the distribution of that information to merchants, payment processors, or others.

At the surface, an ecommerce shopping cart is really something that every beginning online merchant intuitively recognizes.

Create An iPhone Vector Image in Adobe Illustrator, Part 3

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:21:31 +0000

Over the past two weeks, I have been taking you through the process of designing a high quality iPhone illustration in Adobe Illustrator. In this episode, I will be finishing this tutorial series with the final installment, where I will show you how to design the iPhone “Lock Screen.”
Part 1 and Part 2 of this series we previously published.

Social Bookmarking Helps with SEO, Product Sharing

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:17:41 +0000

Social sharing and bookmarking have taken a back seat to Facebook and Twitter. For most of us, using sites like Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, or Reddit rarely crosses our minds.

Yet, these and other such services can provide a number of benefits to your ecommerce site, and here’s why. In today's web economy, content needs to be both "findable" via search engines and "shareable" via social media.

A Better Comparison Table

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 19:49:37 +0000

The modern website designer or developer uses many resources to complete a project.

How and when those resources—whether coding languages, graphics, or frameworks—are employed often determines how well and how quickly a project comes together.

In this tutorial, I will demonstrate how to quickly create a "better" feature comparison table using HTML and CSS.

3 Key Shopping Cart Features Not Found On Blogshops

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 09:01:46 +0000

Ten Ways To Reduce Your Shipping Costs

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:09:18 +0000

Online merchants are often caught between the increasing demand for free delivery and rising shipping and fulfillment costs. Thankfully, there are some simple ways to reduce the cost of shipping and order fulfillment. Here are ten of them.

1. Rate Shop

Rate shop your parcels among all available carriers and delivery methods.

Transitioning from Pay-Per-Click to Organic Search

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 19:59:59 +0000

If you are spending too much money for pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, then you likely have considered moving away from PPC and towards organic search results. After all, if you rank well in the organic, or natural, search results, you can spend a lot less money on PPC. But how do you do that?

Building Collages in Adobe Photoshop

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 19:57:35 +0000

The ability to create high quality, detailed collages in Adobe Photoshop is a sought after skill in the design community and being able to create a beautiful composition in Photoshop can set you apart from other designers.

In this video tutorial, I will show you how to create a leafy photo collage over block text in Adobe Photoshop CS4.

To begin, I will show you how I originally set up my document wi

Conversion Tip: Understand Why Visitors Abandon Purchases

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 05:27:22 +0000

We continue our series of conversion tips from Charles Nicholls, founder and CEO of SeeWhy, a conversion and cart-abandonment-recovery firm. For this tip, Nicholls addresses the two main causes of abandoned purchases and what they mean to ecommerce merchants.

Charles Nicholls: "A new Forrester study reveals that the top reason why customers abandon shopping carts is the cost of shipping and handling.

September Trade Shows to Consider

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 00:26:24 +0000

Ecommerce merchants have many trade show choices. Here's my analysis, as a former trade show executive, on the September events worth considering. I've also listed shows coming up in the fourth quarter that are worthy of merchants' attention.