Christianna Cannon

A website used to be a fun novelty for a business, but those days are long over. Today, a website is as essential as a business card. With the continual growth of eCommerce, businesses worldwide have discovered new ways to connect with customers far beyond the possibilities of traditional brick-and-mortar commerce. In turn, customers have grown to love the convenience of shopping online and using the internet to learn more about their favorite brands. Websites are what put the e in eCommerce.

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It takes a lot to succeed in business — the drive to excel, the dream of entrepreneurship, and a great deal of trial and error. Research is invaluable, of course, including market research and a solid understanding of your ideal target customer. But nothing beats experience, and as every smart business owner knows, the learning process must never stop.

That's why, as part of our celebration of International Women's Day, Shift4Shop went straight to the experts. We asked women in eCommerce to[...]

If your business already has a website and you're ready to sell products online, you may worry about needing to start your website over from scratch. This can be discouraging — after all, you've probably already spent a lot of time and effort on your website. Or maybe you paid a professional designer to build your site for you, and full redesign just isn't in your budget. Either way, your customers are already used to a certain look and feel for your website, and you may not want to[...]

WooCommerce is a free plugin for WordPress that currently stands as the most popular method for adding an online store to a WordPress website. However, popularity doesn't necessarily mean it's the best solution for you, even if your existing website is WordPress-based.

This article will help you understand WooCommerce well enough to decide if you want to use an alternative. We will then discuss the benefits of using a WooCommerce alternative and the best WooCommerce alternative for your[...]

There are lots of questions an entrepreneur should ask during the process of starting a new business. A smart business owner will enter the game fully prepared, knowing exactly what their plan will be and what requirements they need to meet. Otherwise, the business owner could quickly run into fines, tax penalties, and other problems. Better to do it right the first time!

The question of whether you need a business license, and what kind, should be answered early in the process to ensure[...]

Most aspiring entrepreneurs have heard how important it is to narrow down a niche, but many don't fully understand the effect such specialization can have. The narrower your niche is, the more tightly you can focus all your business efforts. If your niche is too broad, you risk spreading yourself too thin and becoming vulnerable to a larger number of competitors.

"Niching down" is something Kevin Canning, founder of Pearls of Joy, understands very well.

In 2002 he grew tired of working on other[...]

As an online seller, you always need to be on the lookout for potential advantages. After all, competition is fierce, and it takes very little for a customer to hit the back button on your online store and decide to shop elsewhere. Anything you can do to make shopping with you faster and easier, and smooth out the checkout process, is important.

Amazon Pay is one such option that makes shopping at your online store more attractive by allowing customers with an Amazon account — and there are [...]

A great website is important for your business, and the homepage of your site is critical. Your homepage will be the first thing visitors see, so it needs to make your business attractive in every way possible. Appealing design, a user-friendly layout, and other factors all need to come together and present visitors with an outstanding impression of your business.

One of the quickest ways to discover what makes a great homepage is to learn by example. That's why we've collected some of the best[...]

A press release can be a fantastic tool for gaining media attention and informing the public about your business. A successful press release can result in articles from media sources, additional customer interest, and more sales overall. Since press releases have been modernized to keep up with the internet, they often have SEO benefits since they're visible online. A well-written, relevant press release can have a long-lasting positive effect on your business in multiple ways.

However, it's[...]

Email is vital for business. Even if you don't rely on email to communicate inside the office, it's your primary means of communication with your customers. Order status updates, back-in-stock notifications, shipping updates and more are all most efficiently managed through email.

Email is also one of your most important marketing tools. Even with the increased usage of text messaging, social media, and live chat in eCommerce, email marketing remains essential for reaching your audience.

Email[...]

In the past years, we've seen the internet grow exponentially, and at the same time we've also witnessed similar growth in the area of eCommerce. Every year, more businesses open websites of their own in order to stake a claim on the World Wide Web.

For the most part, people have come to accept websites as a necessity, but there are a few holdouts remaining who don't see the need. "Websites are expensive," they argue. "I don't know how to make one," they say. "It can't really make that much of[...]

The landscape of eCommerce is always changing, and it's important to be aware of the emerging trends that make up its overall evolution. B2B merchants in particular need to pay close attention to new information that can help them develop their sales and marketing strategies, since the higher stakes of B2B mean a smaller margin for error.

If you sell B2B, you're already targeting a market that's more difficult in quite a few ways, e.g. dealing with more sophisticated buyers and sometimes an[...]

With so many logins and passwords to remember, it's easy to lose track of something. Even if you have the world's best organizational skills, you're going to end up using tons of different websites — especially if you run a business. Making things even more difficult is that some websites don't make their login pages easy to find, so signing into your account can be frustrating.

This article collects some of the most common login pages from websites you're likely to use while managing your[...]

As someone with an interest in selling online, you're probably aware of SEO (search engine optimization) as the process involved with getting a website ranked higher in search results provided by Google and other search engines. But did you know you can use certain SEO techniques to increase the visibility of your eBay listings? You can — and you should!

Here are the SEO techniques you can use to optimize your eBay listings.

If you start your own business, you're going to find yourself faced with a lot of questions. Who are your customers? What's your unique value proposition? What type of structure would be best? And should you incorporate?

Incorporation is the act of establishing your business as a corporation, of which there are two types: a C corporation and an S corporation. Both offer advantages, and depending on your business might be the best option for you. But there are downsides, too, which is why you[...]

A website is a necessity for a business these days, but no matter why you've decided to build a website, there are a few conventions you should follow to make sure your visitors enjoy their stay. Of course, the beauty of website creation is that you have a lot of flexibility and you should create something that truly reflects your brand — but you want to do it in a way that presents your business in a good light and encourages visitors to browse, learn and convert.

To reach this goal, you need[...]

If you're selling online, it's crucial that you pay close attention to rising eCommerce trends, techniques, and other information that can help your business reach success. You need to stay on top of new ideas and insights that you can use to improve various aspects of your online store and marketing efforts. The best way to do this is by following eCommerce blogs.

There may not be a single blog that can tell you everything you want to know about eCommerce, but many offer detailed information[...]

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is an eCommerce business model that allows online sellers to send their inventory to an Amazon warehouse, where their products will be stored and shipped to customers by Amazon staff. FBA has become a very popular solution for eCommerce merchants of all sizes, whether or not they sell on Amazon or from their own online store — for which Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) provides the same benefits.

There are several ways a retailer can benefit from using FBA and MCF[...]

Dropshipping is the practice of selling products which are then shipped to the customer directly from the manufacturer, distributor, or supplier. Retailers who sell via dropshipping don't keep inventory in stock or purchase products beforehand to sell — instead, customer orders are sent to the supplier for fulfillment, with the seller collecting the difference between the product's sale price and its wholesale price, minus any fees.

Many eCommerce retailers find dropshipping extremely tempting.[...]

Selling on eBay isn't an exact science, but there are some strategies you can use to make your listings more appealing to shoppers. An important part of learning how to sell on eBay is understanding how to optimize your listings, not just for buyer appeal, but for better positioning in search results.

The following 5 tips will help you optimize your eBay listings.