eCommerce Blog

If you're getting ready to launch a startup, you're probably experiencing a great many things. A huge rush of excitement, anticipation, and probably some stress and uncertainty. After all, 80% of small businesses fail, and the initial steps you take pre- and post-launch are crucial to your long-term success. All too often, making a mistake can lead to backtracking that most businesses just can't afford. Starting a business always involves tons of decision-making, and to make the best decisions[...]

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 you’re already using Google Shopping ads to promote your ecommerce store’s products, you know how powerful it can be.

Between 2015 and 2016, searches with Product Listing Ads (or PLAs) more than doubled. Google Shopping campaigns consistently outperform traditional AdWords text ads in both cost per click (CPC), where it averages 23% less, and conversion rate, where it runs 26% more effective.

As an ecommerce store, you get a lot of benefit just from using Google Shopping — but is that[...]

In the ever-evolving and growing e-commerce industry (i.e., purchasing a product before you can touch it, try it on, test it out, etc.) returns are unavoidable--expected, even.

As traditional brick-and-mortar stores move operations to the world wide web at an astoundingly rapid rate, the online shopping habits of businesses and customers alike are taking shape before our eyes--namely, the perception of returns.

In a world where purchases can be made at the click of a mouse, lax return policies[...]

For many entrepreneurs and prospective business owners, coming up with the name for your new venture can be comparatively simple and even enjoyable. It is true that this is not always the case, of course. Still, it is also true that “What business name should we use?” is one of the first questions that many people consider when starting a business. Sometimes, people even create a name first and proceed from there.

The emphasis that many place on this one aspect is not entirely without reason.[...]

Conversion rate optimization is highly dependent on different factors, one of which is the quality of content and the appeal of the overall text that you generate.

Being a content marketing specialist, it is one of the most important key performance indicators that you should know about. CRO refers to the practices that help in increasing the number of people who visit your website and fulfill the goals of your CRO strategy.

It can be greatly improved by focusing on the style, content type, and[...]

There are so many aspects that go into running your eCommerce store - finding the right assortments of products, creating eye-catching product pages with beautiful images, reaching relevant customers with your marketing efforts, managing inventory and shipping - you probably think that deciding which payment methods to offer is of secondary importance. 

A payment is a payment, right? Wrong! Selecting a payment method is one of the most critical elements of the customer journey and offering the[...]

Privacy is a primary concern for your customers and for legislators around the world, so your company's privacy policy cannot be an afterthought. It must reflect a sincere commitment to privacy and a desire to meet the highest legal standards.

So how do you get a privacy policy for your online store? Frankly, you probably have three options.

• Hire an attorney to write a privacy policy for your business
• Use a privacy policy generator
• Write your own using examples

Now more than ever, your website needs to be fast.

If it takes even a few seconds to load properly, you might be losing important visitors. In fact, most customers or visitors won’t even wait up to two seconds for website content to properly load. That’s why your loading time is one of the most important things you need to focus on when building a website.

Not everyone has all of the patience in the world. If it takes too long for your page to load, your customers are more likely to jump to[...]

When running a business, accounting is an essential area you need to manage if you want to make it far.

Accounting and finances are often intimidating for new entrepreneurs. And poor mismanagement of them can seriously harm your business. This, combined with the fact that 90% of all startups fail, often discourages new business owners from even starting in the first place. 

But while it’s true that these areas can be hard to properly manage, this just goes to show how important they are. For[...]

Have you ever tried back office outsourcing services? If not, then you should look into refining your back-office functions to unlock the hidden efficiency in your business that you might not be aware of.

First, let’s understand what back-office operations are and why they’re important.

Take the following hypothetical:

Do you love watching movies? Have you ever thought about what you like in movies? It might be the actors, actresses, their acting, songs, or lyrics; basically, anything that you[...]

Whether you run a business part-time, full-time, or just contribute to one, it’s best to always consider scalability.

Failing to do so means guaranteeing preventable future work, that — without momentum — could take even longer than it would have initially.

No one wants to lose time and money to things that are better off done right in the first place.

Any company that’s been able to successfully scale was able to do so because its core business practices were designed with growth in mind.

This[...]

Since eCommerce is a constantly evolving field, eCommerce software needs to keep evolving as well. To that end, we're happy to announce 3dcart Version 9, the latest upgrade to the 3dcart shopping cart platform and our first major software release for 2019.

This new update includes enhancements to many existing features, updates to current payment gateways, and several new features and payment processor integrations to further expand the options available to 3dcart merchants.

Version 9 also[...]

When you start an eCommerce business, no matter how obscure your niche may be, you are trying to attract as many potential customers as possible. If you already have your own online store, you may believe that you are already doing everything you can to accomplish this. You may be sending targeted email blasts, or promoting yourself on websites aimed at the same demographic.  If this is working for you, then excellent! Keep at it!

However, you just might be neglecting a significant portion of[...]

A good user experience design is there to attract more clients, and to keep the ones you have. Of course, this much easier said than done.

The problem is, you need to stand out. There are so many website designers, programmers, and web experts, that the work, creativity, and resources needed to stand out are significant to say the least. This means you need to implement every tool in your arsenal, as well as get some new ones. This is where understanding the psychology behind UX design comes in.

Technology has changed the way we lead our lives. It has affected businesses of all sizes in every industry.

Customers have found their lives made easier by technology and smarter businesses seek to embrace that. Options like order status, shipping tracking, and others have given customers more confidence in online transactions, as opposed to the risks that were perceived in earlier days of eCommerce.

The wealth of options available for secure online payments have also made things much simpler[...]

Your website needs images because they provide a number of benefits. For one, they are an excellent way to break up text, creating a stronger flow in your copy and making it more digestible.

For another, combining textual communication with visual communication improves the ability of your content to convey an idea. Plus, many people like being able to see a product before making a purchasing decision.

While eCommerce websites require images for these and other reasons, they may experience[...]

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[...]

When talking about digital marketing, the topic of SEO always comes up. It’s at the core of all online marketing. And without it, your online presence suffers.

However, SEO strategies branch out, depending on your online business model. For example, if you run an online store, your strategy will be different from that of a YouTube content creator.

Today, we’ll focus on SEO for online stores selling products from drop shippers. We’ll outline a “2019” 5-Step plan for you!

After all the work you and your team have put into creating your website, you may believe that your online store is ready for business.

The site design is both aesthetically pleasing and easy to understand, and the page layouts leave little to no room for confusion. The content copy on the product pages is informative and engaging, and their SEO value is excellent. Navigating the website is simple, as is the process of placing an order.

However, you may still find yourself wondering: if all of[...]