The internet continues to disrupt the selling of products and services. The traditional ecommerce strategy of creating a single site and trying to market to the entire internet from that site is a shrinking option. Most small businesses do not have the budget to compete with ecommerce giants, and thus their market share is diminishing. […]
An unexciting but important part of ecommerce is shipping. A sale is not complete until the customer receives the goods. Yet all too often we search for the cheapest delivery method. Indeed some of the more sophisticated order management systems measure the dimensions, weight, and destination of every parcel and then compute the cheapest delivery
You notice good customer service in a physical shop. You appreciate friendly personnel who know the stock and are otherwise helpful and polite. You likely consider returning if you have enjoyed the visit and received good value. It is often said that smaller ecommerce retailers should offer more value than the big box shifters. Experts
Those of us who sell on Amazon tend to believe that reviews are all important and that negative reviews can dampen sales, in part, because Amazon likely includes an element of reviews in its Buy Box algorithm. Moreover, Amazon sellers also assume that customers are influenced by the reviews. Retailers often go to extraordinary lengths
There are many blogs on how to improve sales on Amazon. In this post, I’ll address the opposite: how to wind down and stop selling on Amazon entirely. It is becoming clear for some retailers that selling on Amazon does not provide enough margins to continue. It is never easy to close a revenue stream.
There is no shortage of advice on what to sell on an ecommerce site. In this post, however, I will describe what not to sell. Ecommerce should be about making money. This usually requires carefully chosen inventory that sells well at a decent margin. Then you can spend time and money crafting product pages and
With the news that Adobe is acquiring it, questions again arise about Magento’s future. Magento merchants naturally wonder whether Adobe will support the open source version and, indeed, if it will remain free. The same questions arose when eBay purchased Magento in 2010 and then sold it in 2015. But asking about the open source
I recently took a break from selling on Amazon whilst reorganizing my stock. When I returned I noticed a difference in the A-Z claim process. First, I found that customers are more likely to create an A-Z claim. I don’t know what Amazon has done with its customer interface, but on the few times I
The E.U.’s new data protection law goes into effect on May 25. Many businesses here in Europe and elsewhere have ignored it. That is a mistake. Failure to comply could result in an eye-watering fine of $20 million. If your company does business or communicates with any consumer in Europe, you should comply, or at
Europe-based merchant accesses GDPR | Practical Ecommerce Read More »
In 2017 nearly 50 percent of all U.S. ecommerce sales went through Amazon. In the run-up to Thanksgiving, the rate was even higher. It is thus difficult to ignore Amazon if you want to succeed in selling online. But that is not to say that you have to follow other Amazon sellers and chase the
