Alejandro Vasquez

Communication is key to maintaining a relationship. This advice often appears in the context of romance, but it applies to any connection between two or more people. It even — some would say especially — applies to matters of business.

Employees and employers must collaborate to make anything happen. Customer support teams answer questions from shoppers and clients. Success is often impossible without reaching out to and accepting feedback from customers. In these and many other cases,[...]

A customer places an order for a product from your online store. You open your Gmail app to see the order form. Then, you open your QuickBooks app and create a new invoice with information from the order form. After that, you open your Google Sheets app to update a spreadsheet with the details.

You likely open several more apps before the order is fulfilled and recorded. Then, you have to do it all over again for your other orders. These are the consequences of running an eCommerce business.

One major advantage that online stores have over brick-and-mortar shops is that they’re always open for business. Anyone can access your site at any time, which is great if you’re trying to attract customers in other time zones. Moreover, the order placement process hums along smoothly without a serious need for constant human supervision. As the old marketing cliché goes, eCommerce business owners can make money in their sleep.

Unfortunately, nothing is perfect. Online stores never close …[...]

On paper, reselling seems like the perfect plan. You, an enterprising eCommerce business owner, need an inventory for your store. You purchase a large number of goods from a supplier in bulk, taking advantage of the included discount. Then, you mark up the price and resell the products at a profit. This business model is bulletproof … or is it?

What are the different types of pages you can find on a shopping website? The answer may be trickier than you would expect. You have the home page, naturally. You have your product pages, as well as the category pages that organize them. There are checkout pages, which guide customers into placing orders. There are also more informative sections like the About page, the Contact Us page, blog posts, terms and conditions, and more.

No business owner enjoys doing taxes. You could be punished for silly mistakes. The whole process is boring. On top of that, it’ll cost you money that could otherwise be reinvested in your business. As intimidating as it may seem, you’ll have to learn how to take care of it as early as possible. Thankfully, filing your taxes doesn’t have to leave a gaping hole in your wallet.

Many people consider the months-long period of the winter holidays to be the most stressful time of the year. Others might contend that the period immediately afterward can feel even more hectic. For one thing, at least the intensity of November and December can be relieved by Thanksgiving, assorted holy days, and New Year’s Eve. For another, the first three-and-a-half months bear the weight of a most important date with even higher stakes: Tax Day.

Entering the potentially lucrative world of eCommerce is easier than ever before. Anyone interested in entering this field can find a variety of eCommerce platforms, on which they can build and run their own online store. Of course, all these platforms are quite different from each other. Business owners need to think carefully about which one would be best for their needs.

Keeping up with the latest trends is vital for anyone running a business. Dedicated entrepreneurs and online store owners should always be vigilant of the newest developments in technology, as well as the most recent research on customer behavior. If you are aware enough and quick-witted enough, you can make more informed decisions about everything related to your overall strategy: which innovations to use, which directions to take, and which updates to make on your website. Watching the[...]

Building a website for your B2B store may require a significant amount of planning, brainstorming, and design work. Newcomers in particular may find themselves unsure of what they should focus on when creating the website. Naturally, each business may need to emphasize different aspects depending on their industry, size, and other factors. With that said, there are quite a few features that can be of great assistance to any B2B enterprise. Here is some information on ten of the universal[...]

No two businesses are alike. The needs of your online store may differ greatly from others, and that can even include competitors in the same industry. That is why when you are trying to choose the right eCommerce solution for your site, you must always consider how well the solution meets your business’s specific needs.

This is also something you should keep in mind if your business caters to other businesses. In fact, B2B stores may need some very different features and services than B2C[...]

Providing accurate shipping rates can be tricky for any eCommerce business, especially newer and smaller stores. So many factors may dramatically lower or raise the final price, and even one miscalculation can result in someone charging you the wrong amount, or you charging your customers the wrong amount. Thankfully, there are solutions out there that can simplify shipping rules for merchants and use automation technology to pull up the correct price every time.

Advanced Shipping Manager,[...]

Visitors to your eCommerce website might admire your appealing visual aesthetic, your user-friendly layouts, and your extensive inventory. They may find the items they want and add them to their shopping cart. They might enter your checkout page feeling completely prepared to pay your business good money. And yet, eCommerce market statistics show that three-quarters of all shopping carts ever created are abandoned.

When people think of online stores, most of them think specifically of business-to-consumer retailers, also known as B2C stores. It only makes sense, as the largest shopping sites in the world generally follow this particular business model. When you visit and make a purchase on Amazon, Wal-Mart, or eBay, you almost always do so as an individual consumer. This may explain why the majority of eCommerce websites mimic these online giants and operate as B2C enterprises.

However, B2C is not the[...]

There are many benefits to adopting dropshipping as the model for your eCommerce business. The benefits include relatively low start-up costs; a major reduction of how much of the supply chain you need to manage; and great scalability as your business booms over time. With that said, not every business would benefit from dropshipping, and not every business owner will find it to their liking — not necessarily due to the fault of the person, but due to the nature of the model and the[...]

Dropshipping can be a highly lucrative and relatively inexpensive way to start and operate an eCommerce business. It is no wonder that online entrepreneurs, especially those who do not have much or any start-up capital, are increasingly turning to this business model. While not every business is cut out for it, the many benefits of this method definitely make it worth at least considering and learning more about.

Having said that, the dropshipping model — as with any other business model —[...]

When you consider which method of bringing people to your eCommerce business can net you the greatest ROI, which sounds like the most likely champion? Conducting a digital marketing campaign may seem like the obvious answer. After all, the whole purpose is to get your business’s name out there and hammer random users with the benefits.

However, there is another method that requires even less investment and can bring even greater returns: ecommerce search engine optimization, or SEO for[...]

The internet has changed so much about the way we consume products. All kinds of niches for products and services once impossible to find are now as easy to reach as a simple Google search. Thanks to various tools, software, and algorithms, customers can receive a more personalized shopping experience than in the physical world. Similarly, social media and other technologies greatly facilitate communication between business owners and their patrons. These are just a few out of many examples.

eCommerce businesses come in all shapes, sizes, and styles. Some online stores are humble one-person efforts, started and run by entrepreneurs for fun and profit. Others are larger endeavors with larger teams that offer services rather than products. The internet is home to so many different types of eCommerce sites that operate with just about any kind of business model you can name or conceive.

That includes dropshipping, an increasingly popular method for making money on the World Wide[...]

Social media is now integral to the daily lives of billions of people around the world, and that includes being inseparable from business strategy. If you run an eCommerce store, you must take advantage of these platforms to spread the word and enable customer interaction. However, this is a two-way street and goes beyond creating and maintaining accounts on the major sites. You also must allow people to easily share your content and products on them.

Including social media icons on your[...]