eCommerce Blog

Are your customers completing the checkout process? Or do they feel confused or let down at the final point in their buying journey?

If you get nothing else right with your online store (and hopefully that’s not the case) make sure you get your ecommerce cart design right.

Design it with one single purpose in mind: getting customers to pay for what they’ve selected. If not, they may head for the exits before completing their purchase.

And a lousy cart or checkout page destroys your conversion[...]

So you’re thinking about starting your own business. Maybe you know exactly what it is you want to do, maybe you’re still toying with a few ideas.

Either way, we’ve put together a checklist to help you get things down on paper and work out what needs doing. From deciding your idea to working out the legal requirements, this article will give you the perfect grounding to go out and make things happen.

You’re seeing pop-up stores more and more as you stroll through the city. They’re a unique way for ecommerce businesses to reach out to customers who would never really see in person what the company is like. They’re a great way for both sides to build stronger relationships with each other, a gentle reminder that the company is run by people who do, in fact, care about their customers’ opinions.

In an effort to promote more personalized customer experiences, pop-up shops have become the latest[...]

Amazon, Google and now Facebook are all vying to be the digital assistant you go to for all your personal household needs. From shopping reminders to connecting with family over video calls, these tech giants want to be part of it all.

According to TechCrunch, over 47.3 million U.S. adults have access to smart speakers, and the market value for digital assistants worldwide will rise to $8.56 billion by 2019.

And every tech giant wants to come out on top. In this article we'll review the[...]

Dropshipping is becoming one of the most popular ways of doing business online. Ecommerce giants like Amazon, Walmart and Wayfair and small businesses alike utilize the dropship fulfillment model for their businesses. As more and more ecommerce businesses venture into the dropshipping realm, they find themselves needing a solution to streamline how they run their companies including how they automate the dropshipping side of their businesses.

The Dropshipping Fulfillment Model

To understand how[...]

It would be safe to say that a person who’s afraid of making a mistake is never going to taste success. Mistakes are an inevitable side-effect of effort, experimentation, and curiosity, all of which are traits that are necessary for climbing to the top in virtually any field. No matter how much safer it is to learn on mistakes of others, trial and error is still the most efficient didactic method in the world.

This is a theory that holds true in any aspect of business and web design is just one[...]

For an online business, bringing more traffic to their site is a crucial SEO goal. While more relevant traffic does translate into better search engine performance, it has several other benefits.

Many of these benefits directly contribute to your immediate business goals that involve revenue numbers. For this reason, more relevant traffic is a goal that isn’t just important for a new business but for the existing ones as well.

That being said, relevant is the keyword here. Higher traffic[...]

Not all ecommerce platforms are the same, so the solution you choose for your online t-shirt business can and will have an impact on your company's ultimate success.

Part of your challenge is recognizing which ecommerce platform features could have the greatest impact on sales conversions and profit.

With this in mind, here are five sales-boosting ecommerce features you will want for your online t-shirt shop.

The eCommerce sector is booming. Consumers spent $453.46 billion on the web for retail purchases in 2017, a 16% increase compared to $390.99 billion in 2016.

The internet did make things easier for consumers with the growing convenience of online shopping, but also gave rise to a few unique challenges. In the beginning, consumers were divided into either online shoppers or offline ones. However, with growing digital influence, this gap is closing fast.

Today, a consumer’s journey may begin with[...]

Consumers have been making big changes in the way they shop over the past 20 years as e-commerce has grown and developed. Although e-commerce only makes up a little more than 10 percent of overall retail sales (according to the U.S. Census Bureau), it still amounted to more than $450 billion in 2017, and it is growing.

As an overall industry, retail itself has undergone significant changes in recent years, but those changes have impacted e-commerce (online retail) to a far greater degree.[...]

When you’re ready to launch your first Google Shopping campaign, you’ll need 3 accounts: Google AdWords, Google Analytics, and Google Merchant Center. Here’s a quick breakdown of what each of your Google accounts is for:

• Google AdWords is where you’ll create and edit paid campaigns. That includes both traditional text-based paid search ads and Google Shopping ads.
• Google Analytics is where your performance gets measured and reported on. You may already use Google Analytics to monitor your[...]

Most companies treat conversion rate optimization and user experience as completely separate matters.

Successful companies, however, know that creating and maintaining a relationship with their customers requires combining both CRO and UX into an effective, high-converting customer journey. Every CRO project involves a number of important UX elements in order to be successful.

As a result, every website aspect and feature you’re offering holds a great deal of influence over the user experience.

The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a regional law with global implications both in terms of its enforcement and its impact. So no matter where your company is located, if it does business with Europe, your ecommerce website must meet at least five requirements.

The GDPR, which took effect May 25, 2018, requires you to clearly communicate what information you collect and how that information is used. You will also need a basis for collecting personal data, and you[...]

Online shopping is different from shopping in the real world for both sellers and consumers. It does not guarantee a completed purchase even when visitors cannot stop filling their carts. Shopping cart abandonment is a common thing for eCommerce according to the latest stats. The average rate is nearly 74%.

It is not a catastrophe for the industry although it results in million-dollar losses for the global eCommerce marketplace and some online stores in particular. If you want to prevent your[...]

Software as a service (SaaS) ecommerce solutions allow businesses to control the features and functions that most readily impact sales and profit, while delegating server maintenance, security, backups, and similar tasks.

In effect, choosing between a SaaS ecommerce solution and a self-hosted one is the act of deciding what matters most to your business. It is focusing on the things that will move your company forward toward its goals. It might even be a manifestation of your business philosophy

Any smart merchant knows that using social media to promote their products is key to a well-rounded marketing strategy, especially during the holidays when consumers are spending more of their hard-earned money.

Last year, mobile sales accounted for $7 billion on Black Friday and Cyber Monday alone. While putting your products on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram lets you put your products in front of a wide audience, it isn't the only way to help drive sales.

Logging onto[...]

Did you know that eCommerce is one of the fastest growing industries in the world?

In 2017 alone, more than 1.66 billion people bought their goods online. In the same year, that equated to about $2.3 trillion worth of e-retail sales.

There are lots of ways for you to sell your products online. A good homepage will only take you so far in promoting yourself. If you really want to get help selling products, in addition to taking advantage of the built-in features in your ecommerce website builder[...]

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[...]

When you have crossed the bridge of validating your ideas, the next step is finding a supplier.

This may seem so easy - a simple Google search will show you a long list of people making what you want to sell.

However, it is more than finding anyone. Your supplier must fit your budget, product quality, and other needs that you may have. Even then, you don’t want to work with a fraudster.

This is where Alibaba comes in. This article gives a step-by-step guide on how Alibaba works for product[...]

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[...]